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The Fundermentalist tracks the Madoff falloutJTA's philanthropy blog keeps up on the latest developments in the Madoff scandal. |
Losses in L.A.The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles reports on the losses suffered by local organizations and institutions that invested with Bernard Madoff. |
Turning gains into lossesReuters reports that even people who pulled their funds out of Bernard Madoff's firm might end up losing money. |
A colorful Jewish gathering in TunisA colorful gathering at the Jewish cemetery in Tunis paid homage to a revered scholar who, according to legend, drank himself to death after his wife burned all of his collected works. |
Hamas' long viewWith the Hamas-Israel truce set to expire on Friday, two items in the Middle East press focus on Hamas' long view of its conflict with Israel. |
Reuters: Those who pulled their funds out, might still lose money
Reports are begining to surface suggesting that even those who were lucky/smart enough to get out before Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme was exposed might end up losing their money. Check out this dispatch from Reuters:
Disgraced money manager Bernard Madoff's suspected $50 billion (33 billion pound) fraud scheme looks set to burn even those who pulled their investments out long before the scandal rippled into the global financial system.
Such investors may have counted themselves fortunate, withdrawing their money years ago to buy a house or to pay for a daughter's education, and may have even sighed with relief because they ended ties with Madoff long before the scandal erupted late last week.
But they, too, could face trouble, lawyers say. Because of a legal concept known as "fraudulent conveyance," they could be forced to return their profits and even some of their initial investments to help offset losses incurred by others entangled in the long-running Ponzi scheme.
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Y.U. acknowledges that it lost $110 million
Yeshiva University President RIchard Joel sent out the following letter Tuesday, acknowledging that the university lost $110 million it had invested with J. Ezra Merkin's Ascot Partners, which was wiped out by the Bernard Madoff scandal.
Joel wrote that the school's endowment had shrunk from $1.7 billion in January 2008 to $1.2 billion now. That includes both losses in the stock market and the Ascot investment.
The Y.U. president also announced that the university has "engaged Sullivan & Cromwell and Cambridge Associates, internationally renowned and respected institutions with recognized expertise in corporate and institutional governance, to ensure that our policies and procedures and structure reflect not only best practices, but the gold standard -- the standard to which we aspire for all our endeavors."
Despite it all, Joel insisted, the university remains financially strong.
Here is the letter:
Dear Yeshiva University Community,
I would like to speak with you, members of the Yeshiva University Community, about recent events in the news. As a result of the last week's revelations regarding Bernard Madoff, much concern and speculation has arisen regarding Yeshiva University. I write to you to make our situation clear.
Before going further let me reassure you:
1. The University is financially strong.
2. Be assured that our levels of scholarships and financial aid will not diminish.
3. Yeshiva University staff pensions are not impacted by this revelation.
4. Our leadership, faculty and students are engaged and advancing.
5. We will learn all appropriate lessons from this experience.
6. We have been engaged over the last two months in reviewing our budgets to seek ways to cut our operating costs due to global economic realities. We will continue to do so and remain committed to advancing our crucial mission of providing an education that ennobles and enables our students
Bernard Madoff is no longer associated with our institution in any way. The University had no investments directly with Madoff. Last Thursday night, we were informed by Ascot Partners, a vehicle in which we had invested a small part of our endowment funds for 15 years, that substantially all its assets are invested with Madoff. The Ascot fund was managed by J. Ezra Merkin who has served as a University trustee and chairman of the investment committee. Mr. Merkin has resigned from all University positions.
In the most recent statement from Ascot, Yeshiva's investment was valued at about $110 million, which represents about 8% of our endowment. While these facts are disappointing, we need to remain focused on the larger picture. We are but one of many institutions and individuals that have been impacted.
Let me be clear regarding our financial position: the University's endowment, taking into account the Ascot loss, is currently estimated to be approximately $1.2 billion, down from approximately $1.7 billion on January 1, 2008. That loss of 28%, calendar year-to-date, compares with an S&P loss of 38% and Dow Jones loss of 32%. While certainly this represents a painful decline, we are in the same or better position as many universities. Although this decreased endowment must factor into our long term fiscal plans, it will have minimal impact on day-to-day operations. Total income from endowment last year represented 13% of the University's operating income. Much more critical to our future health is the continued level of financial support from the YU family, philanthropists, and friends. So, while we are in a healthy and strong position to move forward, we must use the moment to address all concerns that this situation has illuminated.
In light of recent developments, we have decided to examine our existing conflicts policies and procedures, and governance structures to assist us in this process. We have engaged Sullivan & Cromwell and Cambridge Associates, internationally renowned and respected institutions with recognized expertise in corporate and institutional governance, to ensure that our policies and procedures and structure reflect not only best practices, but the gold standard -- the standard to which we aspire for all our endeavors. We will be working closely with our advisors over the coming weeks and months and I'm confident that we'll emerge stronger than ever.
I must add a more personal thought. We all should use these times to reflect on our blessings but also to reflect on our responsibilities. We should constantly be communally introspective and focus on advancing our ideals. The times are appropriate for us to focus on our core values, to practice and refine them and to share them with the world. We can and should always advance. Yeshiva University is committed to engaging in that conversation with other people of good will. I thank you for your interest, commitment and support.
Sincerely,
Richard M. Joel
President, Yeshiva University
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Madoff, Richard Joel, Yeshiva University
AJCongress suffers significant loss but won’t close
The American Jewish Congress was severely hurt by the Bernard Madoff scandal but will not close, the organization announced.
The future of the Jewish advocacy group had been the source of speculation in Jewish communal circles since word leaked that it was among the organizations that had invested a large portion of its endowment with Madoff.
The AJCongress, which was founded in 1918 to fight anti-Semitism and protect civil rights, sent out a news release Tuesday saying that a trust left to the organization by Lillian and Martin Steinberg had been lost.
“For many years prior to their deaths, the Steinbergs entrusted their savings to Bernard Madoff. Sadly, Mr. Madoff did not return the trust they placed in him. It is our belief that all of the money that the Steinbergs left to the American Jewish Congress that was invested with Mr. Madoff has been lost,” the release said. “In addition, part of a second endowment fund was also invested with Mr. Madoff. We believe those funds to have been lost as well. Our losses appear to be limited to those two areas. Additional endowment funds and operating accounts were not managed by Mr. Madoff and are not impacted.”
According to the organization’s 990 tax filing from 2006, the most recent that is publicly available, the AJCongress had $17 million in assets. The money the Steinbergs left makes up a significant portion of that amount, according to the organization's acting executive director and longtime legal expert, Marc Stern.
Stern said it was unclear exactly how much of the total assets the Steinberg trust accounted for.
“Its exact magnitude remains to be seen and we are going to carry on as we can,” he told JTA.
The organization relies heavily on its endowment. AJCongress takes in approximately $4 million per year in membership dues and donations, and about $1.5 million from its investments and interest, according to the 2006 tax filing.
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L.A. Story: More details on local losses
The L.A. Jewish Journal has a lengthy article with more details about how the city's nonprofits have been impacted by the Madoff scandal:
The Jewish Community Foundation (JCF), which manages the endowments of some of the biggest Jewish social service agencies in town, had $18 million of its common-investment pool in Madoff's fund. The JCF pool, which was diversified across several investment advisors and at the end of October listed assets of $238.6 million, handled the endowments of The Federation, JFS, Jewish Free Loan and a handful of other local nonprofits. By October, the Madoff investment had grown to $25.5 million - the balance on that portion is now zero. ...
The Federation appears to have been the hardest hit by the loss in that common-investment pool. It suffered a $6.4 million hit. ...
Culver City-based Beit T'Shuvah, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinic for Jews, contributed $8 million to the common-investment pool. Founder and CEO Harriet Rossetto said Monday she wasn't sure exactly how much they had lost, but she was told the overall fund was down by 11 percent, which meant the organization may have lost almost $900,000. Those in need of help would feel any loss, she said.
"This is endowment money. It is our future," Rossetto said. "We work very hard for every penny we get. There is not an immediate crisis that the doors are going to close today, but my questions are just amazement at the number of supposedly savvy, sophisticated financial people - and I am not - who trusted a guy who should be a resident at Beit T'Shuvah, who managed to pull off an elaborate scam because he looked good."
Stanley Gold, chair of the federation, says he's waiting for more details from the people who run the foundation. Meanwhile, the people at the foundation say they are lawyering up in the hopes of recovering some of the money that they handed over to Madoff:
The news caught up to Stanley Gold, chairman of The Federation, in London late last week. He responded by copying his board on a letter to Marvin Schotland, JCF president and CEO, asking for an explanation of what had happened to The Federation's savings.
"Before I decide exactly what to do, I need to have the facts," Gold told The Journal in a phone interview this week. "There may be all kinds of opportunities to recover from institutions or insurance companies, but I don't want to get the cart before the horse. I need to know the facts. I have asked the questions, and I intend to get the answers in four to five days. And they [JCF] have told me they intend to be fully cooperative."
JCF issued an open letter Monday that stated that less than 5 percent of the assets it manages were invested with Madoff and that none of its donor-advised funds, which the foundation manages for about 1,200 individuals and families, were affected.
"The loss, while unprecedented in the foundation's 54-year history, does not threaten the foundation's stability, its existing commitments or its ability to maintain its leading role in the Los Angeles philanthropic community," the letter, distributed via BusinessWire and signed by Schotland and Chair Cathy Siegel Weiss, stated.
JCF has retained legal counsel and is "aggressively pursuing every possible recovery and remedy," the letter said. However, an article in the Wall Street Journal Monday suggested that investors are unlikely to get any money back, and that those who cashed out profits from Madoff's fund may have to give some back.
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The Joint had limited exposure in Madoff fraud
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee had limited exposure to the Madoff fraud, according to a letter the organization sent to its board members.
After poring over its $280 million in holdings, the organization’s investment committee found that it had put $14 million in the hands of Elliott Associates, L.P. and Elliott International Limited.
Elliot Associates had recently invested 1 percent of its assets with Madoff, which meant that the Joint could potentially lose up to $140,000, the letter said.
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Yad Sarah lost $1.5 million in Madoff scandal
Yad Sarah, an Israeli volunteer organization that provides services for the disabled and needy, has apparently lost significant funds in the Bernard Madoff fraud scandal, JTA has learned.
According to the organization’s latest 990 tax filing, the organization’s American fundraising outfit, American Friends of Yad Sarah, had $1.5 million invested with J. Ezra Merkin’s Ascot Partners in 2006.
Ascot lost all of its assets in the Madoff scandal, Merkin told his associates last week.
Yad Sarah was still checking into the matter as of Tuesday morning, but believes that the money was used to support a Yad Sarah foundation that supported respiratory care.
“In 2006, we started a foundation for respiratory equipment and that was invested with Ezra Merkin,” the organization’s spokesman David Rothner told JTA. “What happened to the foundation, that I wasn’t able to find out.”
Rothner said that like all other Israeli nonprofits that rely on American fund raising, Yad Sarah was already facing a difficult year.
“We assume we will be affected more or less like any other organization. When it rains everyone gets wet,” he said. “Even before this fraud was found out we anticipated that the donations through 2009 will decrease. To say that a specific federation will donate less money to anyone in Israel was specifically because of this specific fraud.”
Yad Sarah’s budget is around $20 million annually, Rothner said.
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The Merkin angle
The late businessman and philanthropist Hermann Merkin loved Yeshiva University so much, he endowed a chair that was held for decades by Modern Orthodox spiritual leader Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik. Now his son, J. Ezra Merkin, the chairman of GMAC Financial Service, has cost the school $100 million.
That's the lead sentence in what might be the most compelling subplot in the Madoff scandal.
Merkin, the scion of a philanthropic family known for its support of Modern Orthodox causes (and brother of writer Daphne Merkin), has served on the board of many Jewish organizations and institutions, often playing a key role in overseeing how they invest their funds. As JTA's Jacob Berkman reported yesterday, several leading Modern Orthodox institutions -- including Y.U., and two Jewish day schools, Ramaz and SAR -- placed their money in one of Merkin's funds, Ascot Partners. Merkin in turn invested most of Ascot's assets with Madoff.
Now other media outlets are starting to focus in on this slice of the Madoff story.
The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) and the New York Times both have articles looking at the plight and reaction of Merkin's investors. Here's a snippet from the NYT's story:
“Certainly, a lot of his investors have good reason to be upset,” said Harry Susman, a lawyer in Texas who was flying to New York on Monday to help a group of investors who had retained him in the matter. ...
The Ascot Partners fund is just one of what is likely to be many that were decimated in the collapse of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities.
Mr. Susman said the strategies promised in Mr. Merkin’s documents are a far cry from what he apparently did, placing all of the investors’ eggs in Mr. Madoff’s basket and charging a hefty fee for doing so.
He said his clients also recall conversations with Mr. Merkin when Mr. Madoff’s name came up, and Mr. Merkin was silent on the now apparent fact that Mr. Madoff was effectively the man managing their money.
Mr. Susman said his clients are particularly incensed because Mr. Merkin was charging them an annual fee of 1.5 percent of their investments in exchange for his services, which now appear to be little more than turning over the money to another investor altogether.
Mr. Merkin’s fund also had provisions that generally let investors make only annual withdrawals and then only with 45-days notice, a condition that not even Mr. Madoff imposed on those who hired him directly.
“People who went through Merkin, they had to pay for the privilege of being stolen from,” Mr. Susman said.
Over at the New York Jewish Week, Gary Rosenblatt looks at things from the perspective of insiders at Y.U. and other Jewish institutions (the site appears to be down, so we'll link to it later). According to his report, some Y.U. board members were begining to raise questions about Merkin's strategy for investing so much of the school's money with Madoff, and new conflict-of-interest rules were being considered that would have forced a change:
While international attention continues to focus on Madoff, who faces charges for his alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme, some leaders in the Jewish community, particularly within Modern Orthodox institutions, are expressing shock and anger at the role played by J. Ezra Merkin, a prominent investment guru and philanthropist, who appears to have misled at least some investors.
Merkin stepped down Friday as a Yeshiva trustee who played a primary role in managing the university's endowment funds.
According to several sources close to the institution, about $100 million was invested through Merkin, which ended up in Madoff's fund - without the board's knowledge - and is presumed gone. ...
o one is accusing Merkin, who did not respond to an interview request, of prior knowledge that Madoff was operating an alleged fraud. Indeed, Merkin informed investors in his $1.8 billion Ascot Partners fund last Thursday that he was among those who suffered substantial personal losses when it crashed, since all of its dollars were invested with Madoff.
But while he has portrayed himself as a victim, Merkin is being criticized as having misled institutional and personal investors, including those wary of Madoff's secretive and suspiciously successful earnings streak. Several people said that while they were reluctant to invest with Madoff, they trusted Merkin completely, not knowing that he in turn was taking their investment in his Ascot Partners and putting it into Madoff's fund. ...
In hindsight, many in the community are now asking how a donor and/or trustee of a nonprofit could be in a position to manage money for the institution, as Merkin did.
"You have to know Ezra to really understand how this could have happened," said one source who has sat on boards with him. "He is brilliant and incredibly well connected in the Jewish and financial community, with a long and incredible success rate in investments. Plus, he can be, at times, charming and considerate - as well as intimidating."
Several people noted that when questioned or challenged about the wisdom of investing heavily in one fund rather than diversifying, "Ezra would ask, 'Why would you reduce your concentration in your best performing fund?'"
Still, there were grumblings. Some of board members at Yeshiva had raised issues of good governance at meetings, unaware of specific problems with Merkin or Madoff. They felt Yeshiva was exposing itself to serious questions about potential conflicts of interest, regardless of who the personalities were. But veteran members resisted, insisting that Merkin was not only respected and trustworthy but "the Golden Boy controlling the Golden Goose," as one person explained.
Ironically, the university was in the process of responding to calls for instituting stricter policies regarding conflict of interest when the news hit of the Madoff fiasco. Procedures that had been discussed for more than a year were scheduled to be put in place next year.
Merkin has served for the last several years as chairman of the investment committee at UJA-Federation of New York. But in part because the federation has a policy prohibiting members of the committee from directing funds, there was no exposure of its funds to Ascot Partners or Madoff.
"There were some on the board who grumbled about us missing out on a solid investment but we weathered the criticism," one insider noted.
Merkin is expected to be off the UJA-Federation board by week's end.
Some have pointed out that Merkin had benefited numerous individuals and nonprofit organizations for many years and deserves gratitude for boosting their levels of income and success. But most of those interviewed expressed more anger than appreciation, and wondered how deep and extensive the impact will be on the Jewish philanthropic community. Everyone said they expect a slew of civil lawsuits.
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The regular people
We've been focusing a great deal on the Jewish organizations, institutions and foundations that lost money in the Madoff scandal.
But plenty of individuals and families were taken in by the scheme.
Click here to listen to NPR's report on duped investors in Palm Beach.
The New York Post has a first-person article titled "We've Lost Everything," by a woman named Bette Greenfield, a lifelong New Jersey resident who retired in March and moved to Florida in July:
'm not from a wealthy family living on a big estate in Palm Beach or in an Upper East Side apartment. I'm 71. I've worked hard and lived a quiet life - and have just lost my retire ment savings in the blink of an eye, thanks to Bernie Madoff.
When my brother told me the news, I said, "I guess I'm going to have to live in a refrigerator box now."
I made jokes because it was the only thing I could do to not burst into tears.
How did this happen?
My father, a CPA, was smart and an extremely knowledgeable financial ad viser. As he aged, he wanted to have something where he could put his savings and live off the interest.
He was told by one of his wealthy Palm Beach friends that Bernie Madoff was a miracle worker with invest ments, and that he could pull strings to get Dad into a trust fund with Madoff Securities.
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Maimonides school in Boston could have lost up to $5 million via Madoff
The Maimonides School, an Orthodox Jewish day school in Boston, is one of the latest Jewish day schools to announce that it was hit hard by the Madoff scandal.
In a letter sent to parents and board members, Jeff Swartz, the chair of the school’s board of directors, said that the school could have lost up to $5 million from a trust left it by Maurice Saval, who died in 1988. That trust had yielded more than $8 million in total, according to the letter.
But much of Saval’s money was in recent years invested with Madoff, and Swartz estimates that $3 million, approximately 60 percent, of the Saval Trust was lost in the Madoff scandal, and perhaps another $2 million, says Swartz:
I say “estimate” and “approximately” only because the fraud investigation is just beginning; the various authorities that are involved are doing whatever such authorities do under circumstances as this. I know that the trustees of the Saval Trust are pursuing the redemption of their remaining investments held by the money manager that were not invested with the alleged perpetrator of the fraud. I also know that they have not yet been able to redeem the funds that they believe are still held by that money manager, and so we cannot say with certainty if the loss is limited to $3 million. Worst case, there could be an additional $2 million invested in New York. At this point, we simply cannot predict whether the Saval Trust will recover the funds still invested or any of the funds that had been entrusted to the alleged thief. As we know more, we will share the details with you.
The loss of the Saval Trust, along with the depressed economy could lead to a need for greater tuition assistance, lo lower enrollment in the school, a reduction in annual giving to the school and to an even smaller return on the remaining endowment.
Swartz made a plea for help:
The need to act with real financial caution with respect to our budget is self-evident. I have been engaged with the principals and the Board for nearly six weeks now, examining what can be done to minimize our expenses and maximize donations to the School. We were motivated by the meltdown in the financial markets and the economy. The incremental horror of the fraud has forced the work we have been doing to become even more urgent.I appeal to you simply and humbly: The need for financial support for the School is real. For everyone who believes in our School, who benefits from our School, who shares a passion for what our School does, the need is immediate for each soul to bring forward terumah, as your heart motivates you.
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Maryland foundation could be Madoff victim
Another Jewish foundation appears to have been a victim of Bernard Madoff's fraudulent investment firm.
According to its 2006 Form 990, the Rockville, Md.-based Charles I. and Mary Kaplan Foundation had more than $29 million of its $30 million in assets invested in a "Madoff brokerage account."
The foundation -- and two of its officers, Edward and Irene Kaplan -- are major donors to the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and numerous other Jewish institutions in the Washington area, and the foundation funded the Jewish demographic study of the nation's capital in 2003. Irene Kaplan is the most recent past president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. She refused to comment when reached on Monday evening, saying, "I don't have anything to add" when asked if she had been affected by the Madoff fraud.
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Florida's Palm Beach Rocked By Madoff Scandal
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EnlargeThe Palm Beach Country Club is where Bernard Madoff is said to have recruited some investors to his fund. Getty Images
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Bernard Madoff, seen in a 1993 file photo, allegedly lost tens of billions of his investors' money. AP
Morning Edition, December 16, 2008 · A federal judge in New York has taken steps to help potential victims of what is being described as the biggest financial fraud in history — ordering that an investment company owned by Bernard Madoff be liquidated and that a federal fund be set up to pay out up to $500,000 to those who may have been bilked.
Banks, investment funds, individuals, even charities are trying to determine how much money they may have lost in Madoff's alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme.
'Is My Money All Gone?'
Palm Beach, the ritzy Florida enclave where Madoff had a home and where he found many of his clients, might have been hit harder than any other community.
Few people there watch the island's money more closely than Richard Rampell, who runs an accounting firm founded by his father in 1959. Rampell, who is also a board member of the NPR Foundation, says he started getting a lot of calls Friday from clients who had invested money with Madoff, who was arrested Dec. 11.
They all had the same questions: "Is my money all gone? Can I get any of it back?" Rampell says. "Some of these people are very wealthy … people that live in expensive houses or expensive condominiums and may have lost everything."
Over the years, he says, his clients received regular statements showing the steady returns Madoff was known for. Some clients withdrew millions of dollars from Madoff's fund, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, with no problems. But others reportedly had invested almost all of their savings.
One thing many of Madoff's clients had in common is membership at the Palm Beach Country Club. It's an exclusive club, with a beautiful golf course, ringed by palms, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
Madoff was a member, and other members sought introductions in hopes of being allowed into an even more exclusive investment club that brought steady, double-digit returns even when the market was down.
Rampell says he once ran into Madoff and asked him how he delivered such consistently high returns. "He says, 'Well, I don't tell you my trading strategy; that's proprietary,' which is not unusual. He says, 'But I can tell you this: I can make money when the market goes up; I can make money when the market goes down; I cannot make money when the market stays flat,' which indicated to me that maybe he's doing some sort of day-trading."
Not all of Madoff's clients were super-wealthy. Arnold Sinkin, a retired carpet salesman in Boynton Beach, says he put his life savings — nearly a million dollars — into Madoff's fund. He's now being forced to put his townhouse up for sale.
Sinkin and his wife, Joan, were interviewed on ABC's Good Morning America. Joan Sinkin said, "You can get in with Bernie Madoff — wow, you're lucky. And it's just gone in one telephone call." Arnold Sinkin added, "This is what they refer to as the golden years, when you retire and you try and enjoy life. And then you get wiped out in 48 hours."
Panicked Investors
All over Palm Beach, from the country club to the ultra-exclusive Breakers hotel, Madoff and his alleged Ponzi scheme has been the talk of the island. Over the weekend, at least one new multimillion-dollar condo near the Breakers was put on the market by an investor reportedly hit by the fallout.
More could soon follow.
Panicked investors are turning to lawyers such as Brad Friedman of Milberg LLP for answers. Five days into the scandal, Friedman already has agreed to represent more than 100 of Madoff's clients, some with investments totaling over $100 million.
Friedman says one of his first efforts will be to find out where all the money went. "Fifty billion dollars did not just go up in smoke. … It went someplace," he says. "If that money went into some of his other operations, we're going to chase that money down and recover it for investors."
Friedman says that as people come to terms with their losses, ripple effects will spread throughout the economy. One of the first casualties, he says, will be charitable giving.
"The victims of this fraud," he says, "for whatever reason, tended to be overwhelmingly Jewish, I suppose many of them because they met Mr. Madoff through the Palm Beach Country Club or the Glen Oaks Country Club. These communities are decimated, and they're some of the most philanthropic communities in the country."
Some Jewish charities had their savings invested in Madoff's fund. One philanthropic group, the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, says it lost more than 10 percent of its endowment, $6.4 million. On Monday, three foundations — including the Chais Family Foundation, which gives millions of dollars a year to Jewish causes — announced that they were being forced to shut down.
Related NPR Stories
- Dec. 16, 2008Madoff's Ponzi Scheme Scams Smart Money
- Dec. 15, 2008Florida Pawn Shop Booming After Madoff Revelation
- Dec. 15, 2008Extent Of Losses From Madoff Unclear
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