SEC'S THOMSEN DEPARTS, UNDONE BY MADOFF SCANDAL

.... former SEC chair David Ruder said we should wait to pass judgment on the Madoff matter until details of the 2006 investigation are clear....

It must be factored in that the SEC backed-off investigating Madoff NOT because they are incompetent, but because SEC investigators risked losing their jobs if they zeroed in on Madoff. CAREER KILLER In the ranks of L/E, it is NOT advisable to imply people of Jewish heritage are doing something illegal---even moreso, it is a career killer to suggest it. FBI agents have been lacerated and condemned----even losing their jobs.

Madoff threw his weight around---he seemed to know L/E dared not suggest he was doing something illegal and he may have colluded to use scary charges of anti-Semitism to forestall investigations into his operation. Madoff and his investors had a lot to lose if he was investigated. He was operating a fraud----most certainly a tax evasion, money laundering fraud that subsidized lavish lifestyles, posh homes all over the world, yachts, private planes, exclusive country club memberships, and mega-shopping excursions to buy pricey watches and jewelry.

The number of "foundations and charities" connected to Madoff raise many red flags. The IRS has asserted that "foundations and charities" are the locus classicus for tax evasion. The Madoff-related entities need to reveal monies that may have been illegally redirected and be requested to explain:

(1) how the Madoff-invested charities solicit contributions,

(2) how tax-exempt donations are made, and,

(3) the manner in which donors to the Madoff-invested N/P's (particularly officers of publicly-held companies allocated company assets).

The Madoff-invested N/P's should be asked for details about who inside, and outside, these organizations are soliciting contributions, how the various subcommittees are funded, and the extent to which fonors to Madoff-invested tax-exempts (particularly officers of publicly-held companies) perhaps colluded in various schemes with tax-exempt monies, perhaps financing political campaigns surreptitiously, and engaging in other illegal transactions.

ONE OF THE SEVERAL MADOFF FEEDER FUNDS Brighton Co Investments is headed by Stanley Chais, Beverly Hills, a "philanthropist" who served on "charitable" boards with Madoff. Chais (pronounced Chase) told the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles that he personally invested with Madoff but also "facilitated" others who wished to do likewise. However, spokesmen for the SEC and the California Dept of Corporations said they could find no record of Chais registering as an investment advisor or a broker.

Stanley Chais offers remarks at the Weizmann Institute of Science.

STANLEY CHAIS IS PROMINENT WITHIN THE SOCIAL LABYRINTH MADOFF USED TO RAKE IN BILLIONS---

MAP IS INTERACTIVE AT WEB SITE

WEB SITE http://news.muckety.com/2008/12/28/madoff-used-social-family-networks-to-rake-in-billions/9031

Madoff’s Tactics Date to 1960s When Father-in-Law Was Recruiter
By Linda Sandler and Allan Dodds Frank
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/data?pid=avimage&iid=iYhqiOt7kNm4

Jan. 29, 2009 (Bloomberg) -- Bernard Madoff’s practice of promising investors double-digit returns dates to the founding of his firm in 1960 when his father-in-law steered clients to him, according to court records and customers.

Madoff, accused by the U.S. of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, got a boost in his early years from accountant Saul Alpern, the father of his wife Ruth. Alpern referred friends and their relatives who spent winters in North Miami Beach and summers at the Sunny Oaks Hotel in New York’s Catskill Mountains in the 1960s, according to Cynthia Arenson, the hotel owner. “His son-in-law just opened a firm, and he was doing very well,” said Arenson, 68, who lost at least $1.25 million with Madoff. “Wouldn’t you encourage your friends to invest with him? Sometimes they got 18 percent, sometimes they got 19 percent.”

--SNIP--

Accountant Frank Avellino also began recruiting clients for Madoff in 1962, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit filed in 1992 against Avellino & Bienes, his firm. The firm had evolved from Alpern & Heller, the firm run by Madoff’s father-in-law, according to court records filed in the SEC case.

Same Tactics-----By October 1992, Avellino’s firm had issued $441 million in unregistered notes to 3,200 people and entities promised returns of 13.5 percent to 20 percent, according to the SEC complaint. Avellino paid himself by taking what was left after giving investors an agreed-upon return on their Madoff accounts, according to court documents. Avellino and Bienes agreed to close the business and refund the money invested by customers, the SEC said.

After getting money back from Avellino, some clients, including Arenson, put it right back with Madoff, Arenson said. Gary Woodfield, a lawyer for Avellino, declined to comment.

As Madoff’s network broadened and became international, his recruiting network grew larger. For example, Hedge fund Fairfield Greenwich Group got fees as it directed assets to Madoff, according to a proposed class action filed Jan. 8 in Manhattan federal court against the company. Thomas Mulligan, a Fairfield Greenwich spokesman, said the firm performed “extensive due diligence” before investing. The case is U.S. v. Madoff, 08-mag-2735, Manhattan). U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York.

“.....perhaps financing political campaigns surreptitiously, and engaging in other illegal transactions.”

Somebody ought to check Obama’s coffers!

Wow! bookmarking for later, thanks Liz!

Political correctness is indeed a career killer.

Do your job, and lose it because of political correctness.

Don't do you job, and lose it because of political correctness.

This has nothing to do with Madoff being Jewish.

This is common with Gov't organizations created to be watchdogs. They end up protecting those they should be 'watching' espically the most powerful.

We have seen this in all kinds of areas, such as food, building codes, sanitation etc.

Get rid of the SEC.

Political correctness is indeed a career killer.

And it takes a lot of backroom p-o-w-e-r (well, maybe campaign contributions, too---snicker).

Somebody ought to check Obama’s coffers!

Where DID all those last minute contributions from overseas emanate from?

Many savvy Wall Street insiders figured Madoff was laundering Billions for Russian mobsters. When he confessed, Bernie said he flim-flammed $50B but investigators could only find $17-30B---difference is the Ruski's. Probably why Bernie is walking around---the ruthless Ruskis want to know where Bernie hid their money. Once he tells all, he can say his prayers behind bars.

Madoff was running a money-laundering operation to get mob money out of the US to offshore accounts. Seems his investors were in on the game and figured if Bernie was helping the Ruskis steal, they oughta make a few bucks on it......out of sight of the taxman and US banking laws.

The FBI has fingered the Russian mob in all kinds of frauds---billion-dollar staged auto accidents, billion-dollar Medicare/Aid fraud, billion-dollar insurance and securities fraud, ID theft, sex crimes, child porn......you name it.

===========================================

REFERENCE----EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE TRI-STATE JOINT SOVIET-EMIGRE ORGANIZED CRIME PROJECT. RUSSIAN-EMIGRE CRIME IN THE TRI-STATE AREA

Gangsters from the former Soviet Union have established a strong and abiding presence in the New York/New Jersey/Pennsylvania region, engaging in a wide array of crimes that range from sophisticated financial frauds to narcotics trafficking to murder.

Evidence also shows that members of disparate Russian-emigre crime groups here have the potential to develop into one of the most formidable organized crime challenges to law enforcement since the advent of La Cosa Nostra.

These are among the key findings of the Tri-State Joint Soviet-Emigre Organized Crime Project, a cooperative research and investigative effort launched four years ago by four agencies in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania - the New York Organized Crime Task Force, the New York State Commission of Investigation, the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation and the Pennsylvania Crime Commission.

Investigative agents and staff from these agencies conducted the project in conjunction with criminal justice experts from Rutgers University. The Project's report presents the first comprehensive public assessment of the threat posed to this region by criminal elements emanating from within the former Soviet Union.

The report catalogues the history and growth of Russian-emigre crime networks, from their core base in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn to their current reach well beyond the New York metropolitan area into the counties of central New Jersey and the suburbs of Philadelphia.

One of the most troubling aspects is evidence of links between individuals here and criminal elements in the former Soviet Union, a phenomenon that lends a disturbing and complex international dimension to this emerging domestic law enforcement problem.The range of criminal and illicit activities linked to these groups is impressive.

The Project report details Russian-emigre involvement in a variety of highly sophisticated frauds and confidence schemes, financial crimes, including money laundering, counterfeiting and securities fraud, narcotics trafficking and an assortment of vice crimes.Russian-emigre criminals are no strangers to violence either.

THE NATURE OF RUSSIAN-EMIGRE CRIME

Crimes of Deception

Motor Fuel Tax Fraud

Insurance and Entitlement Fraud

Confidence Schemes

Counterfeiting

Violent Crimes

Homicide/Attempted Homicide

Extortion and Kidnapping

Drug Trafficking

Money Laundering

Vice Crimes----Regpay, a Florida credit card processing company operated by Byelorussians, was nailed for processing online child porn payments. NOTE Minx, Belarus, once a constituent republic of the Soviet Union (independent since 1991) is the country of origin of many of these predators now thieving on US soil.

--SNIP--PDF LONG READ http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:Ahm0dOHcKHEJ:www.state.nj.us/sci/pdf/russian.pdf

I’ve read similar findings on deepcapture.com and Patrick Byrne. How deep does the rabbit hole go?

How deep does the rabbit hole go?———We might ask Alice in Wonderland (grin).

Dec 26, 2008
The Bernie Madoff I Knew
BY Laura Goldman (her first-person account)
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-bernie-madoff-i-knew/

When I heard the news of Bernard Madoff’s arrest, I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God, I dodged that bullet” was my first thought. For sure, there was no gloating on my part. Anyone, who has been in the brokerage business for a long time, has been preyed on by con artists more than once.

As a broker, you try your best to avoid them, but there is always one that slips through where your guard is down. Madoff and my paths crossed in Palm Beach over 10 years ago. We were both scouring for clients there, albeit on different rungs of the social and economic ladder. My office was the lunch counter at Green’s Pharmacy while Bernard’s was the much grander Palm Beach Country Club.

Hearing whispers of his investment prowess, I approached “Uncle Bernie” one day and asked to meet him to discuss referring clients to him. Madoff’s clients bragged that he showed consistent returns of 10-18% each year and rarely had a down month.

At the meeting, Bernie, known as the Jewish T-bill, was very charming and low key. Bernard, the former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange, did not want to answer questions about his investment business and strategy.

He only grudgingly admitted that he employed a split conversion strategy that used both put and call options. I did not know what to make of his opacity.

I was discomfited by his saying how lucky that I was that he allowed me to invest with him.

The structure of Madoff’s investment also concerned me. Similar investments would have been established as a hedge fund with a separate custodian of the assets. The general partner of a hedge fund takes a management fee and a percent of the profits. Mr. Madoff insisted on keeping the assets in house at his own brokerage firm, but only charged commissions, which meant a lower payout for him.

Madoff, always the salesman, assuaged my doubts about the investment structure. “I make up for the lower fees with the additional volume of investments that my fee structure attracts.”

The consistency in returns, the small size of the auditing firm, and the structure of the investment were troubling, but they were not the deal breaker for me. Since my office had previously been in the same building as the Philadelphia Stock and Options Exchange, I knew many of the employees of the exchange and leading market makers.

When I called them, all of them said that they knew Bernie but did not trade with him. Even though he said that he traded his options over the counter, it still seemed strange to me that none of the giants in the tight-knit options world traded with him. After 45 minutes of detective work, I passed on the investment.

Even with the red flags raised on the investment, I struggled with turning down the investment opportunity. I was worried that my cautiousness was causing me to miss a great opportunity to earn lots of money. The product that Bernie Madoff had “created” would have been as easy to sell as ice water on a hot summer day.

After turning down the opportunity, I frequently encountered clients of Bernard Madoff. Most had the lion’s share of their assets invested with him.

My suggestions to diversify their assets fell on deaf ears. Sadly, many Jews believed in Bernie Madoff more than they believed in God and were just as unlikely to forsake him.

Even though the drumbeat of rumors about Bernie’s business eventually grew louder in the financial community, there was nothing that I could do about it. I could not take on someone with the stature of Bernie without proof in black and white.

I wasn’t the only one with doubts. In 2001, Barrons and MAR Hedge Fund Report wrote scathing reviews of Bernie’s investment business.

The title of the MAR article did not pull any punches — “Madoff tops the charts; Skeptics ask how.” Barron’s was also hard-hitting. “The recent MAR Hedge report, for example, cited more than a dozen hedge fund professionals, including current and former Madoff traders, who questioned why no one had been able to duplicate Madoff’s returns using this strategy.

Likewise, three option strategists at major investment banks told Barron’s they couldn’t understand how Madoff churns out such numbers. Adds a former Madoff investor: “Anybody who’s a seasoned hedge-fund investor knows the split-strike conversion is not the whole story. To take it at face value is a bit naïve.”

These articles gave me an excuse to contact Madoff’s clients again. Instead of being thanked for sending them the articles, I was attacked. “How dare you say anything bad about Bernie.” Some dismissed the attacks on Bernie as anti-Semitism.

Several of those who received my mailing asked me questions. Still, even though I planted the seeds of suspicion, they did not grow. Most decided to continue investing with Bernie. They told me that they did not want to give up a good thing. They did not believe that the music would stop and they would be left without a chair.

Now that the music has stopped, many of Madoff’s clients are finally singing my name. Unfortunately, there is nothing that I can do for them now. I wish that I could say that this type of fraud would not happen again, but unfortunately I can’t. Now that Bernie has proved how easy is to do, one can be sure that con artists will be falling over themselves to imitate him. END

Considering Madoff's liberal clientele and their legal political donations history, I am pretty sure that a lot of the 'small amount' untraceable donations to Obama through Internet or other e-ways have found their way from Madoff funds and/or similar others.

Norman Hsu's 'Ponzi scheme' where third-party money were flowing through his 'fund' to political campaigns was just a small window into how the pipeline works. Hsu was a piker in attempts to "bundle" and make reimbursed 'donations' look legitimate, compared to the massive scale of operation that Obama set up - his pipeline was wide and opaque - Internet, e-money / e-cash including fraudulent credit card 'stripping' charges...

FEC has expressed no interest in investigating the legitimacy of $250M or more of these donations.

Obama Accepting Untraceable Donations

Obama’s Easy Credit

McCain-Feingold CFR, my 'maverick' behind...

.....a of lot untraceable donations to Obama via Internet or other e-ways found their way from liberals "invested" with Madoff........

There’s a zillion ways connivers like Madoff could have bundled campaign contributions using the zillions from his subrosa “investment” vehicles.

I highly recommend watching the video of the House Financial Services Subcommittee meeting on the failure of the SEC to head a decade-long stream of explicit warnings about Madoff from a patriot named Harry Markopolos.

Although it's over four hours long, it's at least as interesting as a Super Bowl. The first half has Markopolos detailing his many attempts over many years to get the SEC's attention. There's a little intrigue here, because Markopolos was in fear for his life.

In the second half, the Subcommittee invites in the culprits, the executive leadership team of the SEC. If you only have five minutes, watch an excerpt in which Rep. Ackerman of New York reams the SEC staffers. It's no wonder Linda Thomsen quit. In Japan, she would have had to fall on her sword.

I hope the voters treat the members of this subcommittee in a similar fashion. The subcommittee's oversight was less than effective.