Fiddler on The Roof and Bernard Madoff
By Sami Jamil Jadallah • Dec 22nd, 2008 at 7:18 • Category: Features, Israel, Newswire, PalestineWhen the movie "Fiddler on the Roof" came out back in 1971, it was such a big hit with me that I took 4 different dates to see it. It was a very moving story of a poor Jewish man named "Tevye" who endured a very tough and difficult time in Tsarist Russia and its frequent pogroms. With all of the difficulties he clanged to tradition, kept the faith in God and always wished he was a rich man.
Tevye perhaps speaks for all of us made poor by George Bush and the financial pogroms that put millions of Americans through, and I am sure Tevye speaks for the all of the rich Jews made poor by Bernard Madoff. I am sure all of us remember the wonderful and moving lyrics from Fiddler on the Roof
"Dear God, you made many, many poor people.
I realize, of course, that it's no shame to be poor.
But it's no great honor either!
So, what would have been so terrible if I had a small fortune?"
I'd build a big tall house with rooms by the dozen,
Right in the middle of the town.
A fine tin roof with real wooden floors below.
There would be one long staircase just going up,
And one even longer coming down,
And one more leading nowhere, just for show."
Good thing Tevye did not live to see the day when a fellow Jew, Bernard Madoff stiffed so many rich and elite Jews out of tens of billions of dollars. Had he lived that long and immigrated to America, and became rich perhaps Tevye would have been one of them. The names Bernard Madoff stiffed looks like whose who in American Jewish community and include "Senator Frank Lautenberg, New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon, real estate and media mogul Mortimer Zuckerman, GMAC Financial Services chairman J. Ezra Merkin (who ran a hedge fund, Ascot Partners, which reinvested many charities' funds with Madoff), the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, Steven Spielberg's Wunderkinder Foundation, Jeff Katzenberg, the Boston-based Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation (which has closed its doors), Eliot Spitzer's family, the Chais Family Foundation, the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Foundation, Hadassah (the Women's Zionist Organization of America), the United Jewish Endowment Fund of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington , the Los Angeles' Jewish Community Foundation's $238 million Common Investment Pool, the American Jewish Congress, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology" this is a quote from an article that appeared in "Counterpunch" of course not to mention Yeshiva University where Bernard Madoff served on the Board of Trustees.
Since many of these charities and major Jewish personalities are heavy investors in Israel and Israeli causes, I wonder how many of these charities that lost money with Bernard Madoff support and finance Jewish settler terrorism and Jewish terrorism. One thing is for sure we know that most if not all of the money that comes to these criminal Jewish settler terrorists comes from the US. Many if not most of the money that comes to support these Jewish terrorists and criminals comes from US tax exempt charities. Charities that fund them as they go about forging documents and committing fraud to enable them to steal and rob Palestinians of their homes and properties in West Bank cities of Jerusalem and Hebron and take over lands for their settlements, no to mention terrorizing Palestinian farmers and villagers on a daily basis. These charities make it possible for these criminal terrorist settlers not to have a job but make terrorizing Palestinians a full time job paid for by American Jewish charities.
It will not be a surprise if some members of the Congress who feel Jewish charities suffered major losses that prevent them from continuing the support they give to these criminal Jewish settlers will add the Bernard Madoff Investment to the list of financial institutions qualifying for the $700 Billion bail-out.
Only on few occasions did I wish to be a Jew, and who wouldn't (there is no need to go through difficult circumcisions since by tradition we are circumcised at young age) especially those of us born in Palestine or have Palestinian parents and lost our properties to Jewish settlers and to the State of Israel. If we were Jews we would have the rights to our properties and land and no one, not from New Jersey, or New York or Orange Country can claim the land as deeded to him/her by God.
Of course as I look and see Jews from Moldavia, Russia, the Ukraine, Hungry, New Jersey, New York, North Miami and Orange Country have a right of return, not only return but can chose the piece of land he/she wants and claim it as his/her irrespective of who is the Palestinian owner and as I look at those of us born in Palestine not only are denied the right of return, but denied the right to visit and stay beyond the 3 months tourist visa. My late father, a US citizen who qualified for the "family reunification" program as applied to my late mother had to fly out of the West Bank town of El-Bireh to Cyprus every few months (for more than 10 years) until such time he bribed an Israeli working for the civil administration who gave his a residency card to live in his home town. Denial of residency applies to any Palestinians wishing to return and live in the areas under the civil administration of the Palestinian Authority.
I am sure I do share with Tevye his wish to be a rich man, but not so sure I wish to be that rich and Jewish to qualify to be one of the clients of Bernard Madoff. Boy the man has lots of Chutzpah. Not all Jews could qualify with him, but only certain Jews, the country club type the very supper rich, the philanthropist who gives lots of money to Jewish causes and to Israel. I am sure Tevye is laughing in his grave and perhaps continue to wish he was a rich a man. As for Palestinians conversion to Judaism is always an option, why not? We could easily solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict peacefully and without much shedding of blood.
Sami Jamil Jadallah is Palestinian-American born in El-Bireh, Palestine, an international business and legal consultant, and a veteran of the US Army. His comments are posted at his website http://www.jeffersoncorner.com.
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Great article, Sami! It is indeed interesting how many of these "investors" who have charitable organisations openly are able to support any and all Zionist projects, while all Palestinian charitable organisations in the US have stringent regulations and many of them are on a kind of blacklist. (When their organisers aren't "suicided"…) It is indeed a an example in a microcosm of what Zionism has been able to sell itself as, as a sort of charity, and furthermore, while it enjoys a status of being untaxed income, there is very little about it that is "regular".
We wonder where the auditors were in all of this? It is amazing that all of that money could move and no one was checking the books! I have a tiny business, and I have to have an accountant do my work for me every year so that things balance. If I am not claiming everything, right down to the repairs on the door or whatever, I am legally liable to punishment according to the civil code. How is it possible that billions could be played with and no one was checking?
They have friends who we still don't know are involved yet, that is my belief. Friends in the government who allowed this to go on, in order to do the things they want abroad and at home, to make some money and cash it in right before the crash, and then…. like you say, to get a bailout too.
I deeply doubt that Madoff could do such an abnormal thing to his co-tribesmen. I think James Petras didn't guess it right this time. The most probable scenario seems to be this:
http://www.iamthewitness.com/news/2008.12.18-The.Madoff.Double-Bluff.html
Birds of a feather flock together…
American Jewish charities that fund and support Jewish settler’s terrorism and the daily stealing and robberies they commit, the daily destructions of farms and properties, the destruction of animal stocks, the poisoning of the wells, the fraudulent land deals, and of course to keep these criminal settlers well fed, enough to produce kids like rabbits, have some very powerful friends in high offices in the US. It is not so surprising that both the attorney general Michael B. Mukasey and secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff are big supporters of Israel, and all Zionists causes and supporting Jewish settlements is one key Zionist enterprise. It is these two federal departments that have been focusing all of their efforts spending tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions of tax dollars going after Palestinian charities, especially those accused of being supporters of Hamas making sure that no money goes to any activities of Hamas even if these activities have nothing to do with terrorism or suicide bombing. However these two federal departments looks the other way, either as proponent, advocate or ideological supporters of Jewish settler’s violence and terrorism with direct result that American Jewish charities that support Jewish settler’s terrorism enjoy not only the protection of the law here but enjoy the tax- exempted status. I am not aware of any case or any investigations conducted by the Department of Justice or the Department of Homeland Security or the IRS or the FBI of any American Jewish organizations or charities active in supporting Jewish settlements and settler’s terrorism. I am also unaware of any investigations let alone filing of criminal charges against all of the fraud perpetuated and committed by these charities and their membership as they go about acquiring Palestinian properties through forgery and fraud, as they have done on a number of occasions when US money was provided to these settlers to acquires Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and in Hebron or acquire land for settlements. Even Jewish synagogues came into the act and began to auction of apartments in settlements built on stolen land, and no one in our government bothered to look into this action. It is clear those American Jewish charities that support and fund Jewish terrorism are off limits and for good reasons. They have allies in high positions and in Congress and no one dare to touch them. Bernard Madoff $50 Billions simply did not disappear, it is physical impossible, one loss is one gains, and now we have to wait and see where did all of the money went, perhaps few billions will appear in Israel. What is so surprising and so strange is that these very sophisticated investors did not questions Madoff how he was able to get a fixed return of 13% or more when all of the other funds was losing money? Perhaps greed, perhaps “don’t ask don’t tell” was the general rule. $ 50 billions disappear and no one from the federal government bothered to look into it. We spend millions following small time drug pushers who are pushing nickels and dimes yet we simply ignore a $50 Billion operation. I am sure someone in Congress will make sure that the $50 Billion loss is included in the financial bailout. We have to wait and see. I think it is time for the federal government to open investigations into ALL American Jewish charities that support Jewish terrorism the same way they are pursuing Palestinians charities that are suspected of supporting Palestinian terrorism. Unless of course there is a difference between Jewish terrorism and Palestinian terrorism.
An excellent exposition, this just confirms to me that the best laid plans of mice and men come to nought when we do not factor in God, and so the false Jews and other Zionists groups that have engineered this economic crisis are reaping of there own control enhancing Terror and schemes and there is much more to come never mind the Poletics, God awaits mans ear and obedience any other way will not work there is going to be no upturn in the monetary systems no matter what we are promised.
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WHAT A STRANGE WORLD WE LIVE IN!!!!!!!!!!
A Jewish criminal steals billions of dollars but if someone dares to mention that he is a Jew (without any criticism to Judaism), he/she will be defamed with the all times favourite label “anti-Semite”, yet if a Muslim criminal steals a few dollars from social services, Islam will be disparaged and crucified for the action of a pitiful Muslim thief
Jewish charities gets involved in acts of corruption and lack of transparency http://thejc.com/articles/charities-not-being-open-enough%E2%80%99
and violations of human rights by supporting an army http://www.israelsoldiers.org/news/details.php?noticia_id=44&categoria=1 of racist apartheid regime that was established by theft of a WHOLE country, ethnic cleansing and terror, and still continues to exist on theft, ethnic cleansing and terror, they are glaringly involved in theft of land, YET the “civilised” world punishes the Palestinian charities http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/interpalaccount/ that’s trying to alleviate some of the suffering of millions of starved and traumatised children!!!
The zionist entity occupies Palestinian lands by mere oppression, cruelty and power, YET the “civilised” world upgrades its trade agreements with it, reward it with more weapons and aid, and punishes the subjugated Palestinian women and children by sanctions and blockade!!!
A Jewish doctor murders hundreds of his elderly trusting patients and steal their savings http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Shipman, but his religion is never mentioned in any of the news reporting
YET if a Muslim tries opens his mouth to muffle faint criticism against the zionist entity, and whispers that people who have been oppressed for so long have the right to defend themselves, he will be labelled as a MUSILM terrorists, supporter of terror, and Islam will be vilified for teaching terror to it’s followers!!
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Palestinians convert to Jews?! Sounds like a good idea.
On the other hand Sami Jamil Jadallah, its also a curse to be born Jewish.Can you imagine that there are those of us with Jewish blood that would prefer to be Palestinian???I have been going through an Identity crisis for years.My ancestry is the same as Tevye, and these days I curse the blood that flows though my veins.
As for Bernie Madoff and his clients, the Christians have a saying "the Lord works in mysterious ways". perhaps Berinies fall is a matter of divine intervention?
You are right Sami, there should be various types of auditing done on these "tax exempt" charities. I don't believe it will ever happen, but there should be transparency in these organisations, for the benefit of the "donors" and to be sure that funds are not used to line the pockets of people who use that technique to get rich. Especially important is that they should not be involved in activities that violate human rights conventions, and should not have any connections to military operations.
I do remember as a kid the "buy a tree for Israel" programs… we were taught to believe that it was a barren place and needed to come to life for the future. How they really lied to us to get Palestinian areas into Jewish hands! It is sad, but like someone said, you can't put Poland in Palestine, and this was what was being done, here we were thinking of being ecologists, making the world a better place, but it was merely another instrument of oppression!
@Moury Ben – That would be a real boost for the jewnazification of the world you're so keen on, Moury Ben…
I am glad that the posting is generating interest and debate, mainly on the issue of American Jewish charities and their involvement as major player in the criminal, racketeering and terrorist’s Jewish enterprise that is the Jewish Settlement Movement. While it is true that when major crimes take place and the perpetrator is of the “Jewish” faith, the faith of the criminal is not exposed or publicized and for good reasons. Anti-Semitism remains alive and well from New York to California. However when a “Muslim” or an “Arab” commit even a minor traffic ticket, his faith is publicized and played up as part of the story. I guess Arabs and Muslims have to take their turn in the long line of victims of racism, just like the Irish, the Italian, and the Jews had to go through. I guess this is the way it is in the US.
Most if not all American Jewish charities are involved with the Israeli and Jewish Occupation of the West Bank and are major supporters of Jewish Terrorism and Jewish settlements and are major sponsor in the largest organized and well funded land theft in modern history. However for political reasons no one dares to question the activities let alone look into their activities especially their activities in the West Bank and with Jewish Settlements. If any one dares to look into and investigate these American Jewish charities they will be run out of town, every one in the country from the White House, to Congress to Department of Justice and Department and Department of Homeland Security, let alone ADL will be after them with charges of anti-Semitism. However I do believe and sooner than later there will be a non-Jewish Steve Emerson who will investigate all of the doing and sayings of Synagogues similar to what Steve Emerson did and is doing in all of the mosques and Arab clubs (we need to keep in mind that access to mosques is easier since they are open to every one while Jewish Synagogues are not as such it will be difficult for a non-Jew to have access like the one enjoyed by Steve Emerson. Sooner than later there will a non-Jewish Steve Emerson who will investigate the role of American Jewish charities and expose their active role in the land theft, in fraud, and in supporting cold blooded murders committed by Jewish Settlers and sooner than later all of the Yeshivas will be under scrutiny with complete review of all of the teachings and opinions expressed about about others, similar to what American Jewish organizations have been doing investigating Arabic and Muslim schools. Too bad all of this has to happen. No one will ever accept that American Jewish charities are off limit to public scrutiny. This has nothing to do with being anti-Semitism; it has every thing to do with good fair public policy that treats all charities to the same standard. There are no good reason why Irish Catholic charities are suspect in supporting terrorism, Muslim charities are suspect in supporting terrorism and Jewish charities are not suspect when in fact they are the largest supporters of Israeli and Jewish terrorism in the Occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.
It is a fascinating issue, the different policy applied to donations going to Jewish or Muslim associations. The USA has a blacklist of associations. Just any kind of suspected affiliation or donation to Hamas is enough to blacklist the group, no matter what the money is doing and how much of it is going to concrete relief:
check this out
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L18369065.htm
and this one tells of the true damage caused by this arbitrary selection of Muslim charities:
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43289
read this
Given there is no formal accountability or oversight regarding who is put on the blacklists, the door is wide open for politicians and bureaucrats to misuse them to retaliate against political opponents. Since there is no process for individuals whose names appear on such lists to appeal or challenge their accuracy, they are effectively treated as "guilty until proven innocent," contrary to U.S. law.
from here http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/2316/1/192?TopicID=5
and this… is quite interesting, when someone turns from staunch supporter of Israel to an interest in Islam and doubts about that previous support. they destroy him and all that surrounds him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_D._Siljander
Special Note: this article was passed on by a friend… very interesting the collusions that take place beween money, politics and power.
Lobbyists, Congress and the Ponzi Scheme
Madoff's Money Trail Leads to Washington
By PAM MARTENS
The forces of the universe sent us a corruption triple play the week of December 8th. Just in case there were any slumbering souls still doubting the multi headed monster we need to slay to avoid becoming Rome, those benevolent forces assaulted our senses with a politician, a lawyer, and a Wall Street icon in a three-day sweep of unimaginable crime. Unimaginable, at least, to those of us bereft of adequate imaginations to keep up with the criminals.
The trifecta began on Monday, December 8, with Marc Dreier charged by Federal prosecutors in Manhattan with selling bogus promissory notes to steal what currently adds up to over $380 million. Mr. Dreier, a graduate of Harvard Law and Yale College, is the owner and founder of Dreier LLP, a prominent law firm employing over 250 lawyers.
On Tuesday, December 9, the Feds arrested Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois, revealing transcripts of taped phone calls where the governor was strategizing on how to sell the U.S. Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama to the highest bidder or career enhancer and, separately, getting revenge on the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune whose writers were saying bad things about him (for some strange reason).
We had a day off to allow our psyches to mend and then Thursday, December 11 arrives.
We are told that Wall Street icon, Bernie Madoff, a key player in self regulation of Wall Street, has stolen $50 billion from investors in a Ponzi scheme stretching over what is now emerging as a three-decade crime spree, or longer. Despite our sprawling Homeland Security apparatus that regularly catches Democratic governors, law enforcement did not catch Madoff; his two sons turned him in after he confessed.
As of December 19, Blagojevich had been released and was in the Governor's Mansion issuing pardons; Madoff was in his $7 million penthouse in Manhattan after being allowed to post, as collateral for his bond, the East Coast mansions he likely bought with Ponzi money stolen from an eclectic group of charities, Florida pensioners and a well-heeled country club set. Dreier was still in jail even though he stole less than 1 percent of the Madoff take. Apparently, Mr. Dreier lacks the right friends in high places.
The major beneficiary of the week was Citigroup. The leaky piggy bank disappeared from the news along with the investor lawsuit charging it with running its own Ponzi scheme on a scale to dwarf Madoff to piker status. Had it not been for the Madoff media frenzy, folks might have started connecting the dots to a $300 billion taxpayer bailout of a bank serially charged with global misdeeds, market maneuvers internally named "Dr. Evil" and "Black Hole," and recent press reports that Citigroup had stashed over $1.2 trillion off its balance sheet.
I seldom have the urge to give a comforting pat on the back to people profiled in the Wall Street Journal. But that was my reaction when I read the 21-page whistleblower document about Madoff that was written by Harry Markopolos to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on November 7, 2005. The Journal still has the document on its web site and Markopolos provides a step by step plan for the SEC to follow to nail Madoff as a Ponzi fraudster. The letter followed a five-year effort by Markopolos, who supplied documentation and made repeated requests to the SEC to investigate Madoff.
Here's how the SEC characterized the letter from Markopolos in a January 4, 2006 memo: "The staff received a complaint alleging that Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, a registered broker-dealer in New York ("BLM"), operates an undisclosed multi-billion dollar investment advisory business, and that BLM operates this business as a Ponzi scheme. The complaint did not contain specific facts about the alleged Ponzi scheme…"
Here's a tiny sampling of what Markopolos told the SEC in his 21-page November 7, 2005 letter. You decide if these are "specific facts."
"I am a derivatives expert and have traded or assisted in the trading of several billion $US in options strategies for hedge funds and institutional clients…(Highly Likely) Madoff Securities is the world's largest Ponzi Scheme…The [Madoff] family runs what is effectively the world's largest hedge fund with estimated assets under management of at least $20 billion to perhaps $50 billion…The third parties organize the hedge funds and obtain investors but 100% of the money raised is actually managed by Madoff Investment Securities, LLC in a purported hedge fund strategy. The investors that pony up the money don't know that BM [Bernie Madoff] is managing their money…Some prominent US based hedge fund, fund of funds, that "invest" in BM in this manner include: A. Fairfield Sentry Limited (Arden Asset Management) which had $5.2 billion invested in BM as of May 2005…Access International Advisors…which had $450 million invested with BM as of mid-2002…Tremont Capital Management, Inc…Tremont oversees on an advisory and fully discretionary basis over $10.5 billion in assets. Clients include institutional investors, public and private pension plans, ERISA plans, university endowments, foundations, and financial institutions, as well as high net worth individuals…Madoff does not allow outside performance audits. One London based hedge fund, fund of funds, representing Arab money, asked to send in a team of Big 4 accountants to conduct a performance audit during their planned due diligence. They were told 'No, only Madoff's brother-in-law who owns his own accounting firm is allowed to audit performance'…Only Madoff family members are privy to the investment strategy. Name one other prominent multi-billion dollar hedge fund that doesn't have outside, non-family professionals involved in the investment process. You can't because there aren't any…There are too many red flags to ignore. REFCO, Wood River, the Manhattan Fun, Princeton Economics, and other hedge fund blow ups all had a lot fewer red flags than Madoff and look what happened at those places…"
Here is what the SEC's memo of November 21, 2007 said following its investigation:
"The staff found no evidence of fraud…All files have been prepared for closing…Termination letters have been sent to Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, Bernard L. Madoff, and Fairfield Greenwich Group. The staff has no objection to the eventual destruction of the files and has no knowledge of any impediment to such a disposition."
Let me run that by you again. Mr. Markopolos, a private citizen, uses his personal time and energy over a seven year period to document a fraud occurring under the nose of the SEC that could impact the international reputation of the United States along with the financial well being of pensioners, university endowments, foundations and private investors. After losing track of the case for five years, the SEC finally gets around to investigating using taxpayers' monies. They come up with nothing despite being given a perfect path to follow to the fraud. And their final suggestion for dealing with the investigation is to destroy the files! With regulators like these, who needs Ponzi artists?
In 1992, eight years before Mr. Markopolos started hounding the SEC to take action against Madoff, the SEC was settling an investigation against two Florida accountants, Frank Avellino and Michael Bienes. The pair had started raising money for Bernie Madoff to manage in 1962, just two years after he came to Wall Street. Avellino and Bienes has sold over $440 million in unregistered notes to thousands of people over yet another three-decade period when the SEC was napping. Mr. Madoff was not charged.
Representing Avellino and Bienes in that matter was Ira Lee Sorkin, the former head of the SEC region in New York City. Mr. Sorkin represents Bernie Madoff today. Put in charge as trustee of the Avellino and Bienes funds and records was Lee Richards. The SEC has put Mr. Richards in place as a receiver and document custodian in the current matter, overseeing the London black hole operation known as Madoff Securities International Ltd.
Marc Mukasey, the son of the U.S. Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, is representing Frank DiPascali, a key Madoff employee. This has resulted in the highest law enforcement officer in the nation recusing himself from the investigation of the largest Ponzi scheme in history.
Naturally, the Madoff money trail of special favors and exceptions leads straight to Washington. From 1998 through 2008, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities paid $590,000 lobbying Congress and the SEC, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. His lobby firm for most of those years was Lent, Scrivner & Roth, with Norman F. Lent III signing the disclosure documents in the House and Senate. One of Madoff's hot button issues during those years according to the disclosure documents was getting a single regulator. That meant, for starters, merging those prying eyes over at the New York Stock Exchange into the clubby pool of self-regulators at the National Association of Securities Dealers where the Madoff family held numerous seats of power. That wish came true when NASD Regulation merged with the enforcement and arbitration units of the New York Stock Exchange in July 2007 to create the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). CEO of the consolidated body is Mary Schapiro, who formerly headed up NASD Regulation, one of the most conflicted bodies in the history of finance. Ms. Schapiro has just been nominated by President-Elect Barack Obama to be the new SEC Chair. Expect to hear more about killing off the SEC (instead of giving it some teeth) and giving Madoff and his fellow miscreants their ultimate dream of just one compromised regulator instead of three.
The Madoff family almost uniformly gives to the same candidates. Cumulatively, since 1993, they have given more than $400,000 to political candidates, committees and PACS.
The Madoff family is also a uniquely telepathic group. When one member had an idea, invariably they all had the same idea. For example, in May 1998, June 1999 and June 2004, a total of seven members of the Madoff family (all living in New York) decided to enrich the coffers of the Ed Markey Committee to the tune of $30,000. Mr. Markey does not represent New York. He is a Democrat who has represented the 7th Congressional District of Massachusetts for more than 30 years. What could have been the motivation?
On February 24, 1997 I flew on US Air flight 6431 from New York to DC along with producer Dean Irwin and a film crew from ABC's 20/20. We were all heading to Ed Markey's Congressional office to talk about one of Wall Street's dirtiest secrets: their denial of an employee's right to sue the Wall Street firm in an open courtroom, mandating instead, as a condition of employment, that the workers contractually agree to usher all claims (even whistleblower claims) into a crony system of arbitration run by Wall Street firms where case law and legal precedent are not followed and discovery is limited. The system draws a dark curtain around the misdeeds of Wall Street and is an enabling agent for ever greater crimes sealed in secrecy. A dream come true for a Ponzi operator.
Congressman Markey was a threat to Wall Street because he continued to introduce legislation known as the Civil Rights Procedures Protection Act that would have outlawed mandatory arbitration for certain employee claims and allowed those claims to proceed to an open courtroom.
The 20/20 crew spent a good portion of the afternoon filming Congressman Markey and myself talking about arbitration. When the program aired, Congressman Markey was gone from the film and just a brief statement was inserted. For decades now, that legislation, or similar legislation, has been introduced and then died a quiet death; much like the SEC investigations of Madoff.
Pam Martens worked on Wall Street for 21 years; she has no security position, long or short, in any company mentioned in this article. She writes on public interest issues from New Hampshire. She can be reached at pamk741@aol.com
http://www.iamthewitness.com/news/2008.12.18-The.Madoff.Double-Bluff.html
Sami, check this out.. it is pretty shocking.. maybe not a scheme after all, but a way to get all that money back that was horribly invested by Madoff.
Mary,thanks… I have no doubt that sooner than later, the entire losses from the Madoff afair will be paid back by US tax payers. No one that such powerful Jewish charities with such connections to Congress and powerful people in Congress will take the loss. They will make sure that we the poor tax payers make up for the loss. Mark my words, the US Treasury will write a check to all of the Jewish charities that lost the money. Of course we need to keep in mind, when they were making the money, they are tax exempted and as such did not contribute to the US Treasury. When they make money, they dont share with us, when they lose we have to share the loss. These Amrican Jewish charities will not accept the loss, they will make sure tax payers pay for it.
The Madoff Double Bluff
by Muhammad Rafeeq
Global Research, December 24, 2008
Rense – 2008-12-18
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11488
At first sight it was extremely refreshing. A white-collar financial crook raising his hands and pleading guilty to his financial crime. This has to be almost a first. Usually financial criminals when caught in the most obvious of wrong-doing plead 'not guilty'. The criminal can be caught boarding the plane, with a suitcase containing US$100mn of someone elses cash, with his mistress holding on to his arm, he will look into the camera with his most genuine 'Tony Blair look of sincerity' and say "What we have here is a misunderstanding…. " You make up the rest of the excuse, there is a million of them.
So yes, an outright confession, "It was me, I chopped down the apple tree" is so against the current socio-political culture it was almost too good to be true. Especially given the pedigree of this perp, the CEO of one of the busiest and most prominent financial exchanges in the world. After his confession the world goes into shock, especially the Jewish world, since affluent members of this community had previously flocked to his door, seeking his world famous high returns. Since his arrest the press is full of people extolling his virtues as a decent human-being and "who would ever of believed it?". It would be so easy for this man to deny any wrongdoing because he could bring out an army of good character witnesses and he could just point at some suspect-looking goy in his hedge fund organisation to lay the blame on.
So a truly heartwarming confession. And it was apparently made to his 2 sons, both of whom who worked for the fund and who had absolutely no idea that this fraud was being perpetrated, until such time as this astounding confession.
But then I sta rted to look more closely at the mix of investors who have lost money. About half of them are professional investing institutions. Look at this quote from the UK's Daily Mail newspaper (online http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/art…-lawsuits.html )
"Full details of the exact losses are yet to emerge. Hedge funds and banks have so far admitted to having around £16billion with Madoff – only half of the total that is reckone d to have been lost. Some of the biggest casualties are Swiss private banks, which have taken hits amounting to about £2.5billion. Spanish bank Santander had £2.1billion of client money with Madoff. HSBC has admitted to lending about £600million to funds who wanted to use debt to gear up their positions with Madoff. RAB capital, the hedge fund that lost huge sums on investing in Northern Rock, has revealed that it is exposed to Madoff to the tune of around £6million."
Now the confession does not look right at all.
It is possible to accept the idea of a Ponzi scheme be played on members of the public, who are ignorant of how such schemes are worked, in fact the schemes are targetted specifica lly at such people. Yet Madoff would have us believe that he managed to convince professional investment companies to put their funds with him without any due diligence being performed. This is clearly nonsense.
I have acted as a professional consultant to major EC and US financial institutions on corporate and institutional credit risk and the idea that anyone in HSBC or Santander could authorise large investment without the internal checks and controls being employed is almost impossible. To try and believe that EVERY institution that invested in Madoff circumvented their internal control procedures IS impossible.
Why is this important? Simple. If someone approaches the HSBC credit risk team, for instance, with a view to making a loan or investing a sum as large as £600m to what is ultimately a single institution (therefore a single counterparty credit exposure) a significant number hoops would have to be jumped through. Firstly there is the credit officer competence limit, which is the maximum amount that a single credit officer may be allowed to authorise. More than his/her limit must be referred up the credit approval food chain. In an institution like HSBC or Santander etc, £600bn or US$1bn will have been referred to the very top of the food chain, the banks' credit committees at the board level. This is an enormous sum and no lacky is going to be able to approve this by themselves, ever.
When the credit committee are called together to review an application, everything is ready prepared for them, so they can cut to the chase . The lower levels of the credit approval process will have prepared a summary of all the application documentation, included in the meeting bundle, with the strengths, weaknesses, and other important credit risk points. This application will usually contain a set of audited accounts going back a minimum of 3 years and most likely 5 years. There will be a full credit breakdown of the investment profile of the business, Madoff's hedge fund, looking at how the fund obtains its returns; investment assets and investment methodology. After the committee is satisfied that all the issues and concerns have been addressed they will vote on the approval or otherwise.
So there is no way that Madoff could have been pulling a scam. It would have stood out as clear as day to professional financial analysts, whose only job in life is to examine the management of companies and their reports and accounts, to make sure that all is in order. Its their job, its what they do. They are the world experts in spotting anomalies. The idea that all these professionals in all these companies were all duped is absolute nonsense. It is highly improbable that one such evaluation process could have been fooled, but all of them, never. A Ponzi scheme is easy to spot when you have the audited accounts and the full range of investment assets and investment metodologies employed.
Also, this scam avoided the attention of all the funds employees; accountants, traders, auditors and the US regulators, all of whom are also financial professionals.
This again is absolute nonsense. A ny company that I have ever worked for would have known internally that such business was being done, because they are all involved. For instance, a trader goes on buying equities from the worlds stock exchanges that go down in price for 5 continuous years, but the company just keeps giving him more money to top up the trading, continues paying his salary and even annual bonus. Absolute rubbish. But assuming this actually did happen, the market risk team would have been watching these losses, as would have the accountants. It is not possible to hide things like this internally for very long, months at the most; 20+ years, NEVER.
So why plead guilty? The answer is simple. Look on the net and you will see that because this case is being labelled a fraud, it would appear that investors are going to be able to claim their investment back under the US government's financial fraud protection scheme. A judge has already given his approval in principle for compensation, w ithout any evidence having been presented and financial fraud being demonstrated in a court of law. And it would appear that there will never be such a demonstration in a court of law. Why? It would appear that all the funds financial records are mostly "missing" (rather like Dov Zakheim's US$1.4tn) and those few records that do survive are in a terrible mess.
However, since the guy has pleaded guilty we do not need to demonstrate the fraud, because he says he is guilty.
And look further on the net and you will see that these "victims" have also been told by the US tax authorities that they will probably also be entitled to claim back some taxes on these defrauded sums.
Rather than saying this hedge fund has gone bust, due to its choice of investment assets and investment methologies, a scenario which is highly probable in the current financial paradigm, since all the professionals are predicting that at least 30% of all hedge funds are about to fail, more than 700 of them, the CEO chooses to fess up to fraud. If the CEO admits the fund has gone bust, then all those wealthy members of the Jewish community get nothing, but if the CEO admits to fraud they get their money back as compensation from the US tax payer, just as they are also drawing money back from the tax payers with the other hand.
And, as can be seen at the Daily Mail link above, the investors in this fund only get to litigate the fund directors against Lloyds insurers in London for even more compensation. Done properly the compensation could end up paying out far more than the original fund returns (yes this is sarcasm, it was bound to creep in eventually in yet another swindle like this).
Would that I could believe that Madoff were a good guy who slipped and then became repentant. But given the facts, this simply cannot be true.
Global Research Articles by Muhammad Rafeeq
Thanks for posting all of that up here, Nahida! that was the article I was referring to, that perhaps it was not a fraud AT ALL and thus, declaring it this way, the losers would be entitled to their money back with interest.
I guess Madoff will turn from being "The lowest of the low" to Santa Clause.