Congressman Robert Pittenger [R-NC9] has signed up to co-sponsor H.R. 3482.
If you are a constituent of Congressman Pittenger’s district, now is the time to send your “Thank You” letter and urge him to engage his colleagues to join as [...]

Victims of Bernard Madoff’s infamous Ponzi scheme have a chance to make claims for a share of a $2.35 billion federal recovery fund, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Monday. The fund is open to applications from burned customers who invested with Madoff indirectly through financial feeder funds, investment groups and other pooled investment vehicles, said Bharara. The federal fund is separate from the recovery and repayment process being pursued on victims’ behalf by Irving Picard, a court-appointed trustee. Courts have ruled that indirect Madoff investors are not allowed to seek recovery from the trustee, who so far has recovered more than $9.5 billion of the estimated $20 billion investors lost in the fraud. More in USA Today [...]

The largest category of victims in the vast Ponzi scheme run by Bernard L. Madoff — those who lost cash through accounts with various middleman funds — will be first in line for compensation from a $2.35 billion fund collected by the Justice Department. These so-called indirect investors represent about 70 percent of all the claims filed after Mr. Madoff’s arrest in December 2008, and about 85 percent of the claims for out-of-pocket cash losses. But because they were not formal customers of Mr. Madoff’s brokerage firm, they are not eligible to recover anything from the federal bankruptcy court, where the Madoff trustee has so far collected $9 billion to apply toward eligible claims. More in the New York Times [...]

An insurance program to protect U.S. futures traders from financial losses when a brokerage collapses would come at a high cost, according to a study released on Friday, which was quickly criticized by a top U.S. regulator. Bart Chilton, a member of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, cast doubt on the findings because the study was funded by futures-industry groups supported by firms that have opposed insurance programs. More on Reuters [...]

A Bank of New York Mellon Corp. vice president told a jury she helped boost Bernard Madoff’s credit line by $225 million in 2006, based on data provided by a former Madoff executive accused of aiding his $17 billion fraud. Daniel Bonventre, one of five ex-Madoff employees on trial in Manhattan, won an increase in the investment firm’s secured credit line to $300 million from $75 million to pay for what he said was a boost in trading activity, Monika Arora, who works in BNY Mellon’s securities industry banking division, testified today in federal court in Manhattan. More on Bloomberg [...]