Former Goldman Trader Fabrice Tourre Found Liable

A federal jury found former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS +2.11% trader Fabrice Tourre liable for misleading investors in a mortgage-linked deal that collapsed during the financial crisis, delivering a historic win for a U.S. regulator eager to prove its mettle inside the courtroom.

The panel of nine jurors reached their verdict during the second day of deliberations, finding Mr. Tourre liable on six of seven claims that he violated federal securities law.

"It was a long, slow process," said juror Beth Glover, a 47-year-old Episcopal priest, after the verdict.

The victory is an important one for the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has struck out in past efforts to make a convincing case to jurors in high-profile trials against individuals.

Thanks for the heads-up.

THE G/S CHRONICLES G/S big guns all go on to bigger and better things (/snix).

Take G/S head Jon Corzine---post-G/S he went on to buy two elected offices for some $125 million---Corzine was a US Senator and NJ governor. When Corzio was tossed out as Gov, he and several G/S cronies went to MF Global and looted that company of some $1.2 billion.

<><> Corzine is a well-rounded G/S operator. As Governor, he left the state of NJ $8 billion in debt. $8 billion went missing from the bogus "schools construction" agency....other agencies like UI and the Transporation Trust Fund went bankrupt with no explanation why. The $82 Billion state pension fund lost about 25%.

<><> OBAMA-CORZINE CONNECTION Right before Corzio’s reelection, Obama sent $17.5 Billion stimulus to NJ-—which promptly vanished. VP Biden is on record as having asked Corzine for financial advice----Biden has a son and a brother involved with the Stanford offshore fraud (Stanford was just convicted of running a Ponzi).

<><> MF Global principal Brad Abelow was Corzine’s appointee as NJ Treasury Secy——controlling ALL NJ assets. Gov and Secy started an investment business——but the two “financial geniuses” said they did not know this was illegal.

<><> MF Global principal Chris Flowers handled Sen/Gov Corzine’s “blind assets.” Flowers led the takeover of a Japanerse bank for Sen Corzine——Sen Corzine passed a bill giving the bank a US tax break......

<><> Jonny said "he did not know" the Senate bill benefitted him. Insider trading on Capitol hill could also be involved---Congress-rigged to get the Corzine bill passed.

<><> Corzine registered three corporations in super-secret financial haven——Delaware——BEFORE buying public offices.

<><>Bradley Abelow, an MBA from Yale School of Management, served as chief of Staff to the Governor of New Jersey in the Cabinet of Gov. Jon Corzine.

<><>Corzine first appointed Abelow Secy of the Treasury. Abelow and Corzine were top executives at Goldman Sachs. Abelow was MF Global Chief Operating Officer; Corzine was MF's CEO.

<><> G/S crony Chris Flowers controlled Corzine's "blind trust" while Corzine was in public office.

<><><><> Corzio, Flowers and Abelow are all G/S cronies.

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G/S CHRONICLES

TRUE STORY I was in an electronics store buying computer equipment----the clerk apologized--said he just got the job and was not too helpful. I asked where he worked last----he said "Goldman Sachs." I musta looked shocked. He said he was not a G/S banker---worked in the computer division. They got rid of him about 2 years ago----when the feds made a big show of "investigating" G/S. My guess is this guy knew too much about their EFT's.

I believe you....honest.

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Dollars to donuts---the $17 bill is offshore. Wall Street Rahm knows where.....b/c he knows how Madoff did it. When he went to jail, investigators found Madoff had stashed billions offshore---into a labyrinth of financial entities. Some $8.9 billion was funneled to Madoff through a dozen so-called feeder funds based in Europe, the Caribbean and Central America......a labyrinth of hedge funds, management companies and service providers that, to unsuspecting outsiders, seemed to compose a formidable system of checks and balances.

But the purpose of this complex architecture was just the opposite: the feeder funds provided different modes for directing money to Madoff in order to avoid scrutiny and generate more fees.

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WIKI.COM Stanley Chais, a philanthropist who invested heavily with Mr. Madoff, and Carl J. Shapiro, one of the money manager's oldest friends, are among at least eight Madoff investors and associates being scrutinized by the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan. Prosecutors are continuing to probe Madoff family members and employees.

Others include: Frank Avellino, a Florida accountant who ran an investment fund that invested client money; Noel Levine, a real-estate investor who works out of a two-room office on the 17th floor, next door to Madoff's fraudulent investment operation, and Palm Beach investor Robert Jaffe, a son-in-law of Mr. Shapiro who referred potential investors to Madoff. [4]

Madoff Securities International Ltd.----In 2008, about $1 billion was transferred last between Madoff’s U.S. firm and Madoff Securities International Ltd. in London. [5][6] On March 24, 2009 Judge Louis L. Stanton granted power of attorney to Irving Picard, trustee, over Madoff's controlling stake in London.[7]

Authorities in the U.K. are seeking evidence of money laundering involving the London business, Madoff Securities International Ltd., which opened in 1983 as a separate legal entity from Mr. Madoff's U.S. New York office. He allegedly sent more than $250 million beginning as early as 2002, from his New York-based firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, to the U.K. office and then back to accounts in the U.S.[5][6]

In 2000, Madoff began to add staff and expand the operation, and loaned the business $62.5 million. He had a staff of 25, including traders, managers and support. Instructions to staff was that they communicate with Madoff Securities through personal e-mail accounts, not through company e-mail.[5]

There were nine directors. Family members with shares included Mark and Andrew Madoff, Peter Madoff, and Bernard himself. Ruth Madoff, Bernard Madoff's wife, also held shares. [8] Non-family members with shares included Maurice J. "Sonny" Cohn. Madoff and Cohn were shareholders in Cohmad Securities, which steered investors to Mr. Madoff's advisory business.

In 1987, Mr. Cohn had shares of Madoff Holdings Ltd., a predecessor to the current London firm. In 1998, Mr. Cohn held 35,624 non-voting shares, some of which he transferred to "BL Madoff" in 1998, and the rest that he "disposed of" in 2004.[8]

Paul Konigsberg, a New York City accountant and a longtime friend for more than 25 years, prepared two Madoff Family Foundation tax returns, and received the non-voting shares, valued at $35,000. He did work for the London office when it was first opened. [8] A general ledger of Madoff accounts listed Konigsberg, of the reputable accounting firm of Konigsberg, Wolf & Co., as receiving $30,000 a month to advise the MSIL operations, and funnel client checks to the London office for Madoff's own use.[9]

Clients were often directed to Mr. Konigsberg by Mr. Madoff and his family. Mr. Konigsberg prepared the tax returns of foundations of six other families, many of which have lost millions, even hundreds of millions, of dollars. He also represented scores of individual Madoff investors.

Mr. Konigsberg's firm has received a civil subpoena from the SEC. His Madoff-related clients included Carl and Ruth Shapiro, Boston philanthropists whose foundation lost $145 million, and whose son-in-law, Robert M. Jaffe, under investigation, is a Madoff business partner.[9][10]

Konigsberg held Madoff accounts under his name including two in the name of the Westlake Foundation. Paul J. and Judith Konigsberg are officers and directors of the foundation. He owns homes in his wife, Judith's name in Greenwich, Connecticut and Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.[11]

On April 20, 2009, Steven Leber filed a $4 million lawsuit against Konigsberg and his accounting firm for negligence, and breach of fiduciary duty.[12] Konigsberg answered the charges with affirmative defenses.[13]

Evidence is being gathered by investigators on a U.S.-U.K. task force that Konigsberg and Levy, a real-estate mogul and philanthropist are believed to be involved in an international transfer of money. Levy is believed to have helped Paul Konigsberg funnel checks to London. And investigators in New York say there were billions of dollars worth of checks going back and forth between Madoff and Levy.[9]

Ruth and Bernie Madoff had an intimate relationship with Levy and his wife, Betty. Madoff was long known to have been Levy's "fixer," obtaining everything from choice restaurant reservations to emergency medical care. Levy had offices one floor below Madoff's in New York’s Lipstick Building. It was Levy who introduced high-profile investors to Madoff.

Jeanne Levy-Church's losses forced her to shut her JEHT Foundation and her parents’ foundation, the Betty and Norman F. Levy Foundation, lost $244 million. JEH helped the less fortunate, especially ex-convicts.[9][10]

Following the death of his wife, Levy's girlfriend, model Carmen Dell'Orefice, an investor, said Levy was Madoff's "father figure". When Levy died in 2005 at the age of 93, Madoff extolled him as a man whose friendship he had cherished and who had "taught me so much." Levy's son Francis said his father believed in Madoff: "If there's one honorable person,” he said, “it's Bernie."[9][14]

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