Neither GMAC, Bernanke or Paulson are talking about how Merkin was allowed to stay atop the privately-held GMAC operation despite his cloudy recent history - which has been marked by several lawsuits charging the 53-year-old investor with fraud.
BACKUP J. Ezra Merkin is GMAC chairman with a money management business as a sideline----a business that fed nearly $1.8 billion into Madoff's Ponzi game. The ever-helpful Bernanke and Paulson handed Merkin $6B in TARP taxpayer funds to play with at GMAC (a car-finance company).
GMAC Chair J. Ezra Merkin, has a shady recent history -marked by several lawsuits charging the 53-year-old investor with fraud. Merkin is president of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue and shoveled $1.8 billion into the Madoff vortex through Merkin‘s Ascot Partners fund. Members of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue, located on the wealthy Upper East Side of Manhattan, are estimated to have invested some $2 billion w/ Madoff.
Merkin is (was) also Chairman of the Yeshiva University Investment Committee, He introduced clients to Madoff and gave him access to prominent Jewish charities and universities.......the entities were all Orthodox religionists. Yeshiva University, an Orthodox stronghold, is a large tax-exempt complex with several campuses, multiple schools, and international offshore connections.
Merkin, who lives in the tony 740 Park Avenue building, told investors in December Ascot Partners LP fund had invested nearly all its assets with Madoff - and had lost it all. Ascot was one of several funds under Gabriel Capital Group, which had a total of $5 billion in assets under management. Investors who had entrusted their money to Merkin - that Merkin then shoveled to Madoff - include New York University, Yeshiva University, New York Law School and Tufts University.
Merkin/Madoff pal, Ira Rennert, Fifth Avenue Synagogue board chair, invested some $200 million w/ Madoff.
Hamptonites complain this astoundingly palatial mega-mansion in the posh Hamptons is actually a tax-exempt "synagogue-residence-yeshiva" for Orthodox Judaism students. The complex---which rivals Versailles and Buckingham Palace----was built by Fifth Avenue Synagogue board chair Ira Rennert.
Is this astoundingly palatial oceanfront Hamptons mega-mansion
a tax-exempt "synagogue-residence-yeshiva" for Orthodox students?
Just as an aside: One way scumbags hide monies from the taxman is donation of property to tax-exempt non-profits---the scam relies on inflating the cost of the land on the books.