Madoff Victims Lost in the Shuffle

Even if you win the verdict, the conficted white color thief has ways to avoid ever paying. Just ask OJ, he can give the 411 on it.

I can't believe that the judge has let Bernie "Ponzi" Madoff out on bail. It's like a rub to the victims face he defrauded. Well CC I would love to hear the author of his autobio of the WOLF OF WALLSTREET I would love to hear his comments on Bernie Madoff and this Scott Free business. It's not fair to those he defrauded and conned. I suspect a lot of people,new yorkers are going to be perturbed over this. I bet Bill O'Rielly is going to eat that judge's lunch on the Factor.

Are you flippin kidding me? Madoff gets to sit in his cushy apartment after he bilked thousands of people out of billions of dollars? There's something VERY WRONG with this picture..................

Girlattorney says "sure she is going to sue BIll" - I am sure she and the entire plaintiff's bar is just liking their lips on this one. I sure hope that all of the insurance carriers issuing D&O and E&O coverage have raised their reserves on this one, because the proverbial stuff is going to hit the fan. By the way, those of you who have other commercial policies with those carriers issuing coverage to the brokers/advisors - be ready for your premiums to go up to pay for the attorneys' fees, the settlements, the judgements, etc.

A 95-year old with and extra $250 million? The question should be "Can people ever get enough?" As one who is at the bottom of the food chain and will NEVER rise from the ashes, I wonder who was more greedy... The swindler or his already-rich investors.

I have a funny feeling that due to who many of these people are who are getting badly hurt by Madoff that some one will pay them back....it will end up being the non wealthy average sap that does not carry and weight in the system. The big guys get bailed out the small guys pay the bills.

I am a Madoff Victim.I believe there is a major misconception about me and my investment with Madoff Securities.Let me explain.Madoff's company was my stockbroker.He was a former Chairman of Nasdaq,his firm was insured by the SIPC and most important,it was regulated by the SEC,who condoned his business for more than 16 years after they were warned of possible fraudulent activities. (This, was unknown to the investors until 12/11, when he was arrested). I invested money in order to maximize the savings I worked over 30 years to earn. Contrary to what many believe (possibly as a result of misinformation on the part of the media), all my eggs were not in one basket.Madoff bought 30-60 different well known, Blue Chip securities at any given time. That's diversification to me. Again, contrary to what many believe-we did not get outrageous returns. When the dot com investors were making 20-30% returns, our returns were in the high teens or low 20's. We were earning less than many during those 'boom' times. Again, contrary to what many believe-I am not suggesting a bailout.I am purely asking SIPC to pay out the insurance money that is available to protect investors from fraud. I am asking for a speedy process.We are victims of Mr. Madoff, and also victims of the failures of the US Government. We are purely asking for SIPC and the IRS to follow their own rules and regulations and pay us the money that we are entitled to in a timely manner. Victims can contact madoffvictim@usa.com

I agree with Joe concerning the Sinkins. Furthermore, they didn't complain when they were getting returns averaging 12% when more responsible retirees were earning the typical 3-4% in secure retirement investments. The Bernie Madoffs of the world exist and will always exist because foolish people like the Sinkins think they are "the smartest people in the room"

As stated above, the stock in CMKM has had a book written, it might be interesting to help what goes on in the investing world. Please note, that I have no connection with this book, however I do own millions of shares in bona-fide stock certificates. http://thenakedtruthbook.com/?tag=cmkm

At first, all those people with such portfolios are so called sophisticated investors. They made directly or indirectly educated choices. Before coming to conclusions, let's let Madoff have his day in court. I do not believe he had bad intentions, but things went wrong. Let's find out what went wrong. The risky investments, well as the name implies, carry risk. No risk, no return. They have all opted for the extraordinary returns rather than put their money into the safety of the FDIC insured CD's. As Christians do, we need to be open minded and do not come to fast judgements. Over the years, Madoff did good and helped many people, both religious and not. Let's wait before coming to fast conclusions. Many of us have lost money in recent turmoil. If Madoff investors are going to be bailed out, I would expect that non-Madoff investors who lost money in the market would no be discriminated and would be compensated by SEC/Government, too.

It would appear the 50 billion so stated ponzi should alert the IRS as I would think that big money was put in-to who knows what. Wonder if taxes were paid on the big money? Wonder why news never covers this aspect when people steal large sums of money?

I was lost I invested in a couples stock that then invested in a fund called Corr-Madoff Investments 4433 S Springfield Ave Chicago, Illinois 60632 All my shares slowly decreased to No Value. But Corr-Madoff Investments is doing well.

I would certainly sue 'Bill'. I've been investing in managed Mutual Funds for 20 years and have always felt that having someone at the wheel was better than trusting to an index fund. What these feeder funds were doing seems to me to be criminally negligent (not to mention lazy and stupid).

im not to familar with investing but it seems this madoff character has ruined a lot of lives. he may even be tied to some individuals committing suicide. If it was at all possible i would persue the death penalty for madoff because of extremity of his theft & the lifes & families he has hurt

Whatever- somesort of bailout monies will be used to repay the losses- Pigs get fed/ hogs get slaughtered. Most investors knew the returns they were seeing during the past year were "to good to be true".

Who's should get paid back first?

Sure, I'm gonna sue Bill. If Bill is in the business of managing investments, Bill has a duty to ensure that the funds are properly handled and safely invested. That's a no brainer! Next question?

CC Bernie Madoff has to be the most interesting con artist of this century to pull what he pulled. I wonder how much more collereral damage,investor colleral damage is now going to surface. I mean bankers,middle class,Upper East and West side elites he conned. Bernie reminds me of Bernie Ebbers of WorldCom who screwed his investors too back in '02. I suspect the human damage that collertal has done is going to stretch to Europe and Asia eventually. But Madoff deserved the Leno jokes and he should be in jail for what he has done. Real question now: did he act alone? Or where there others involved in the ultimate Ponzi Scheme? Will we see the names of Harvard,Princenton pop up as victims next?

Look at all the times the crooks who call themselves dentist have been ripping off people! I think we all need about 75% of our money returned because they as a group make Madoff look like an altar boy!

While we are truly sorry that all of these folks are victims, we feel that we are a "victim" too when we see our 401k's wiped out and our social security benefits going down the drain. These victimns had a choice and trusted a "friend" and entered into the transaction with the hope of a gain or at least a return. Most Americans are looking at huge decreases in 401k value, loss of home equity, probable loss of inconme, and no social security to fall back on. Is there someone to take up my cause or someone I can sue?

Cheryl you really would look great in a emerald and diamond necklace. All these poor Madoff victims and I would be willing to bet not one was a high ranking government officer. We talk about inside trading and selling off right before the fall. Well, I was warned long before the bust about any investments such as "global currency arbitrage", "hedge futures trading", "high-yield investment programs", "offshore investment" and Bernard Lawrence Madoff. A retired Department of Defense employee was scrambling selling off everything including his government bonds, he told me to get out quick before it came tumbling down. This in July, 2008 right before my birthday. This guy was a good friend of the Clinton's. If there was a way to check all the government employees selling off their shares in Madoff; you would of caught that right away, you know, you know, you know. Yup, emerald and diamonds.

In regards to the story about Arnold and Joan Sinkin, The Securites Investor Protection Act will give them $500,000.00 So they aren't wiped out, they actually lost less money than almost every other Madoff investor. People in the stock market lost around 30%,,, They lost 50%. Most of the major Madoff investor's lost 10's to 100's of millions of dollars. Why would Fox put these people on TV being the LEAST victemized investors?????

Its all about the Security Exchange Commission, in, well I am not sure. However I owned stock in a company CMKM, and the best estimate we had was 1 & 1/2 trillion shares, naked short traded. Thats when more stock is sold by brokers, than a company has to sell. To compound the fraud, the SEC placed a regulation, effective January 3rd, 2005, that stated that the brokers did not have to deliver or make good on the counterfeited stock, so they where able to slip the money in their pocket, plus they did not have to pay income tax on the naked short profit. Never mind that thousands of small public companies went bankrupt. The SEC's mission is suppose to protect the investors, however somebody it appears was in bed with alot of brokers. Belonging to a website with 4,000 CMKM members, hundreds of E-mails where sent to about all Congressman and Senators and where written by 50,000 shareholders in the last 4 years, with no results. I feel for the 50 billion dollar scam investors, however they need to stand in-line, as we have been waiting for years to be paid Rico damages for stock manipulation. These officials need to exit their office and go straight to prison. To stand in front of news media and state, that there was an oversight, is wrong, and a lie.

Richard Beals at the UK Telegraph ("Bernard Madoff victims shouldn’t hope for refunds," Jan 7th) did a convincing back-of-the-envelope calculation that essentially all the monies taken in went to fees for the managers of the feeder funds (your target), other administrative fees, and payouts to investors who asked for their principal or interest back before the Ponzi collapsed. That and a few 10s of millions to support Madoff's own lifestyle. So there's really nothing in the cupboard to speak of. Policymakers have the stark choice of allowing a lot of people and institutions (including many of their erstwhile key political contributors) to be ruined, or they can TARP $50 billion of fairy-gold into reality at taxpayers' expense. I'm guessing they bail out their friends, but this is a bad time to further burden ordinary Americans.

Bill has a responsibility and liability to a point. Let's face it - investing 101 say never put everything into one investment. Personally, I wouldn't even put everything with one investment advisor. The 'victims' of this are very wealthy and educated and should know better. The only circumstance that I would say Bill is responsible for the entire loss is in a 'blind trust'. Bottom line - these people should have known better than to invest their total worth with one individual.

These were not victims - not even close. Virtually all were part of the "in croud" and were simply duped. A good many never lost a thing since they were making 15% per year. It only takes 8 years of these types of returns before they had nothing at risk. These were greedy people, knowingly playing the game, and they were caught.

Hello, I just wanted to tell you that I agree with you 100 percent that Mr. Madoff is the scum of scum! I am now 28 years old. My mother died when I was 11. My father was not super wealthy by any means. After my mother's death of brain cancer he raised three children as a single parent and even helped us greatly with college. My father is a victim of Madoff. A lot of members of my family got together in an investment club with Madoff and now have been wiped clean because of this disgusting human being. My father is now 63 and has been in retirement for 2 years. Who will hire a 63 year old electrical engineer? He's full of anxiety, depression, etc. The townhouse he bought two years ago, after 20 years of renting, is now on the market. He wasn't able to pay it all off yet and now he has to find a new place to live somehow within 2 weeks. What Madoff has done is destroy families at the most fundamental level. He deserved no mercy. How he is free out on bail right now amazes me. The SEC should be ashamed for not doing something when they apparently had warning signs. This is a disaster that has gone global affecting people in many countries. Growing up I was told not to hate people, but if you must, only hate their actions. I realize now that's not true. I really do hate this man. He's a selfish, disgusting human who has destroyed many. I ask who will now hire my father who is 63? Who will help my many other relatives? Shame on you Madoff!

The issues on suing advisors with discretionary investing authority in this case are: due diligence and diversity of portfolio. It’s clear that some of the advisors who funneled money to Madoff exercised neither. Absolutely anyone can be taken and/or mistaken for part of a portfolio, but complete wipeouts on one investment? It will be amazing if the advisors in this category who actually wrote the checks are exonerated in the courts.