Madoff Made No Trades for Perhaps 13 Years, Trustee Says
A whistleblower who pointed the finger at alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme architect Bernard Madoff for many years before he was criminally charged claimed that Madoff’s claimed hedge fund investment profits didn’t conform with options market trading records.
Now the trustee who is winding up Madoff’s securities firm says there is no record of any trades whatsoever being made for more than a decade, reports Bloomberg.
It was “cash in and cash out,” said trustee Irving Picard at a meeting today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan with clients of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. “We have found no evidence to indicate that securities were purchased for customers’ accounts” for “perhaps as much as 13 years.”
Although it’s possible Madoff placed trades through other brokerages, it appears he wasn’t executing trades at all, reports Reuters.
Meanwhile, as the Reuters article notes, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has reportedly investigated Madoff several times but found no wrongdoing.
“We are victims of the incompetence of the SEC,” said one attendee, retired New York economist Raymond Spungin, 77, during the meeting.
As discussed in previous ABAJournal.com posts, experts say the investors on whose behalf Picard is seeking assets are likely to lose most of the money they gave to Madoff.
Additional coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Why Madoff Warnings Were Ignored: Regulators Had Wrong Incentives”
Washington Post Investigations: “Did Madoff Buy Any Stock?”
CBS News: “Madoff Victim, 90, Is Back In ‘The Market’ “
Updated at 2 p.m. to add link to CBS News coverage.
