How well does the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority exercise its power? Should it get even more? Those are questions that politicians, courts, the Securities and Exchange Commission and financial service pros are all wrestling with. They should be of concern to ordinary investors, too, since Finra is supposed to provide them frontline protection from stock market manipulators and unsavory brokers. Read more on Forbes [...]
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Last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s inspector general dealt a body blow to David Becker, the agency’s former general counsel who is now a partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. In a painstakingly detailed 123-page report, H. David Kotz chronicled how Becker, as SEC general counsel, was involved in various investor issues arising from the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme, even though he had inherited the proceeds of his mother’s liquidated Madoff account and the SEC’s position on these issues could affect him financially. In a shocking turn of events, Becker’s actions were referred to the Department of Justice to determine if he engaged in a criminal conflict of interest. Read Law.com article [...] One day in the early winter of 2008, Bernie Madoff sat his family down and told them about his Ponzi scheme. “It’s all one big lie,” he said. “There were no investments, no brilliant returns, just somewhere around $50 billion in debts that he couldn’t pay,” Stephanie writes. “When he was done, he began to cry.” Then Bernie said he would distribute about $140 million in “bonuses” to his family and friends, and talk to his lawyer about turning himself in. Mark was shaking with rage, and grabbed his brother Andy. Read more on MSNBC [...] Evil Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff loves prison and even boasted in a jailhouse letter that he is “quite the celebrity” and is treated like a “Mafia don” behind bars. “They call me either Uncle Bernie or Mr. Madoff,” Bernie wrote his daughter-in-law — who had written him, expecting to hear about his “suffering.” Read New York Post story [...] After being convicted in June 2009 of orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme in American history, disgraced financier Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in a North Carolina prison. But his daughter-in-law, Stephanie Madoff Mack, the wife of Madoff’s oldest son Mark, felt he hadn’t suffered enough. Mack wrote him a letter laying out the life he was missing…But Mack said her plan backfired. Madoff’s response, she said, sickened her. Read ABC News report [...] Defendants in two separate lawsuits brought by the liquidator of Bernard L. Madoff’s firm had their cases accepted by a district judge for review, according to court filings today. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in New York agreed the cases against Kingate Global Fund Ltd. and Trotanoy Investment Co. are related to other suits he was reviewing, according to the filings. Read Bloomberg Businessweek report [...] IN WASHINGTON… CONGRESSIONAL CHAIRMAN SENDS STRONG LETTER TO SEC CHARGING VIOLATION OF SIPA STATUTE AND CONFLICT OF INTEREST BY SIPC, TRUSTEE IN THE COURTS… RECENT DECISION REGARDING METS’ OWNERS TOSSES MAJORITY OF TRUSTEE’S COMPLAINTS. TRUSTEE TO APPEAL Federal regulators charged a Citigroup unit with negligence Wednesday, saying it sold a $1 billion investment product tied to the weakening housing market in 2007 without telling investors it was using the instrument to bet against them. Citigroup agreed to pay a settlement of $285 million, which will be distributed to investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission said. Under the settlement, which is subject to court approval, Citigroup neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing. Read Washington Post report [...] Bernie Madoff’s daughter-in-law recalled the final months before her husband killed himself and the agony he had endured, saying she plans to someday tell her kids that their disgraced financier grandfather “drove their father to his death.” Read more in the New York Post [...] While many lost their fortunes thanks to Bernie Madoff — the man who orchestrated the largest financial fraud scam in U.S. history – Stephanie Madoff Mack lost her husband. Now, the widow of Mark Madoff, Bernie Madoff’s oldest son, is the first inside member of the Madoff family to speak out, divulging the story of the death that she says can be traced directly to Bernie Madoff’s unbelievable deception. |
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