[Liz]

”Affiliation” frauds are common----these are the people perps associate with-----who trust the perps implicitly.

Madoff's investors centered exclusively on Orthodox Jewish groups (three other branches of Judaism were not involved). When Madoff confessed he resigned as chairman of Yeshiva University's Sy Syms School of Business, and as board treasurer. Yeshiva's board scrubbed all mention of Madoff from its Web site. Madoff also sits on the boards of North Shore-Long Island Jewish Graduate School of Molecular Medicine, the Picower Institute for Medical Research and New York City Center, a theater organization.

Madoff and his wife, Ruth, Madoff also run a “self-funded non-profit“……………with about $19 million in assets, according to IRS filings…………donating millions to Jewish charities, Dalton School, the Metropolitan Opera, Queens College, Lincoln Center Theater, the Robin Hood Foundation, and groups for underprivileged kids.

SOURCE http://www.nypost.com/seven/12132008/news/regionalnews/charity_trustees_a_bustee_143968.htm

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Stanley Chais tops Madoff's speed-dial entry....as a longtime money manager and Bernie's close friend on the Palm Beach country club circuit of wealthy Jewish returees and businessmen. Chais said the swindle wiped out the Chais Family Foundation, which made millions of dollars in annual contributions to various Jewish charges. Chais must have known about the disgraced financier's multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, a complaint filed in Bankruptcy Court claims.

THE RELIGIOUS, SOCIAL, AND BUSINESS LABYRINTH
(4800 INVESTORS) 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

CHAIS FEEDER FUND Brighton Co Investments is headed by Stanley Chais, a Beverly Hills "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.

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Chais said the Madoff swindle wiped out the Chais Family Foundation, which made millions of dollars in annual contributions to various Jewish charges.

If Chais took out any monies from the Madoff operation that went into the Chais Family Foundation, the money has to be returned so that it can be redistributed to the investors swindled by Madoff. Comes under the legal principle of "fraudulent conveyance"....means one cannot legally profit from a fraud.

[Colofornian]

I appreciate the detail you provided.

Very Interesting.

”Affiliation” frauds are common----these are the people perps associate with-----who trust the perps implicitly.

Yes and no. I mean, obviously, "affiliation" frauds are common. But that could also be said in a way to downplay patterns & trends. For example, I could also justifiably "downplay" your observation that "affiliation" frauds are common. How? Well, simply put, most sin is, after all, "affiliatory." People tend to commit sins against those they affiliate with.(I mean, we could get to the point where we simply "write off" most crime & most sin due to our sinful nature & the fact that we're social creatures...but those obvious observations don't tend to explain trends).

I would simply caution that just because people tend to sin against those around them; or commit crimes vs. those they know, that we don't offer up the prime reason as being "affiliation."

...who trust the perps implicitly

I'm very glad you highlighted this. My contention is not only that sin is sin, and affects all of us to various degrees, but intensified vulnerability comes from exercising false trust. People place their trust in false sources -- untrustworthy sources -- and some people do that more than others.

The religious dimension in all of this: Rest assured no religious group is certainly immune from this; however, my contention is that members of cults are more vulnerable to exercising misplaced trust. (They've usually already, to one degree or another, placed their trust in a mortal authority figure over that of God or Jesus Christ...thereby finding it easier -- even if it's under conscious "radar" -- to trust in other mortal authorities, some/many of whom "burn" them).