New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said the $415 million that former Bernard Madoff investor J. Ezra Merkin will pay under a settlement to compensate investors in three hedge funds he managed isn’t “property” of the con man’s estate, as claimed by the trustee liquidating the estate. Asking U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff to take the case, the state’s highest law enforcement official said it would be “unprecedented” for a federal court to stop the settlement of claims by a state law enforcement agency against parties who aren’t trying to take money from a bankrupt entity, “on the ground that the settlement might make it difficult for the trustee to collect a judgment he hopes to obtain someday.” Read more on Bloomberg Businessweek [...]
|
||||
|
A FORMER Bahrain resident accused of being the “principal architect” in a massive international fraud and money laundering scheme will stand trial in the US, after a court refused to dismiss a lawsuit brought against him. The case has been filed in a Los Angeles court against Glenn Stewart, who was allegedly a “key lieutenant” in a $9 billion Ponzi scheme. He is accused of setting up shell banking operations in Manama from 2003, and using them to siphon off billions of dollars through unauthorised borrowing. The case has been filed against him by Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi and Brothers Company (AHAB) after he fled Bahrain while under criminal investigation. Mr Stewart, formerly the head of The International Banking Corporation (TIBC) in Bahrain, now lives in Pacific Palisades, the exclusive Southern California suburb where his neighbours include some of Hollywood’s most famous and powerful players. More in the Gulf Daily News [...] Sir Allen Stanford was once one of the richest men in America. He lived and loved the high life – cruising around the world on private jets and helicopters and bouncing between multiple mansions. He even bought his own island for $63 million. But it was all based on lies. His company, The Stanford Financial Group, made its name selling what’s usually a safe bet for investors – certificates of deposits. He claimed the CDs came from his offshore bank on the island of Antigua, and because of that, the company offered return rates higher than those in the U.S. When the lies grew too big and his money supply dried out – he was convicted of running an international $7 billion Ponzi scheme, and is serving a 110-year sentence in federal prison. He left a trail of some 20,000 burned investors, many of whom now live in financial ruin. See CNBC report [...] Apropos of nothing, CNBC posted an undated, 3-minute promotional video for Stanford Financial Group earlier this week. Stanford Financial Group, of course, was the vehicle that convicted Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford used to defraud investors out of billions before he was arrested in 2009 and finally convicted and sentenced to 110 years in prison in June 2012. The video is clearly from Allen Stanford’s “pre-indictment” days–the good old days for Stanford when he was a billionaire “knight” whose office at SFG’s Houston headquarters had a private exit for him through his personal bathroom, and included a five-star dining room, movie theater, professional kitchen and wine bar. It starts out with a narrator comparing SFG to an eagle in various different ways, and then rolls into a clip of Stanford himself standing in his fabulous office space touting the various benefits of his firm and how it “develops relationships based on trust and integrity.” MF Global (MFGLQ) Inc. won bankruptcy court approval of procedures that will help it sort through $22.7 billion worth of claims from 6,669 general creditors. MF Global’s trustee, James Giddens, had asked the court to repay general creditor claims under certain procedures for settlements and objections. The motion gives him the authority to settle claims without court permission where the amount is less than $50,000. “I think it’s clearly a sensible procedure,” said U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn, approving the request after hearing from lawyers that the settlement protocols would cover about 80 percent of the remaining claims. More on Bloomberg Businessweek [...] A court ruling in Bermuda has paved the way for representatives of victims of the massive Bernard Madoff fraud to proceed with a civil battle to try to recover as much as $300 million in management fees collected by a company based here. Kingate Management Ltd, run out of a small three-person office on Front Street, Hamilton, purportedly fed $1.7 billion to Madoff’s New York firm, racking up the hundreds of millions of dollars in fees over more than a decade as huge sums of European and other investors’ money passed through Bermuda on the way to New York. The Investor Protection Alliance Although both organizations will continue to function independently on their own issues, the Investor Protection Alliance will focus intensively on passage of SIPC legislation. Please visit the new Investor Protection Alliance website: www.FIXSIPC.org NEW YORK — When Elie Wiesel emerged from quintuple heart bypass surgery, still wired to monitors, he immediately started writing a book about the ordeal — “in my head.” In French. A year later, as he recuperates from post-procedure fatigue and depression, “Open Heart” is being published, in English. And the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust activist is busy in the Manhattan office of his foundation, which also is recovering — from financial ruin by Bernard Madoff, who had invested the money funding its humanitarian efforts. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme also wiped out Wiesel’s family investments. Read Wall Street Journal report [...] Dear Fellow NIAP Member – After nearly four years of Madoff investors being frustrated at nearly every turn, I have two important and exciting announcements that should be of great interest in our battle to provide relief and enhance protections for investors who have been abandoned by our investor protection system. WASHINGTON–The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday asked the Obama administration for its views on whether victims of financier R. Allen Stanford’s $7 billion Ponzi scheme can sue insurance brokers, law firms and other third parties on allegations they assisted the fraud. |
||||
|
Contact us by phone at (631) 425-0770, fax at (631) 421-5701 or by email at admin@investoraction.org
|
||||