The largest fraud in the history of Wall Street

[StormyRay]

Charities count missing millions in Madoff case
Philanthropic groups hit hard by ex-Nasdaq chief's arrest on fraud charges

Deborah Coltin learned yesterday morning that the $8 million foundation she has led for a decade, which supported a wide range of Jewish programs on the north shore of Massachusetts, did not actually exist.

The foundation had invested its endowment with Bernard L. Madoff, a storied name on Wall Street. Every year, Madoff paid out several hundred thousand dollars to the foundation. But on Thursday, Madoff was charged with securities fraud after confessing to his sons that his business was a Ponzi scheme, according to a complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The returns paid to investors came from money invested by other people. And there was almost nothing left.

It may be the largest fraud in the history of Wall Street, authorities said. Madoff is charged with stealing as much as $50 billion, in part to cover a pattern of massive losses, even as he cultivated a reputation as a financial mastermind and prominent philanthropist.

Impressive track record
The key attraction, however, was Madoff's remarkably successful track record. A hedge fund run by Madoff, which described its strategy as focused on shares in the Standard & Poor's 100-stock index, averaged a 10.5 percent annual return over the past 17 years.

This year, amid a general market collapse, the fund reported that it was up 5.6 percent through November, while the S&P 500-stock index fell 38 percent.

The SEC charged in its complaint that the returns were artificial. Madoff at some point started paying investors with money received from other investors, a Ponzi scheme, according to the SEC.

"Mr. Madoff lured investors to entrust him with substantial sums of money — in some cases massive amounts of money — with the false promise of great interest returns," said Mark S. Mulholland, a New York lawyer who filed a class-action lawsuit Thursday against Madoff. He said his firm has been approached by two dozen investors, who lost up to $90 million.

The SEC said it is not clear when Madoff started using new investments to create the appearance of profits. But the alleged ruse was finally exposed by the global financial crisis.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28204628/

[StormyRay]

Not just super rich caught up in Madoff case
List of potential investment scam victims is now spanning the globe

One thing is clear in the fallout from Madoff’s arrest: The alleged victims span from the super rich, to pensioners and *****ful financial institutions, to local charities. Some investors claim they’ve been wiped out, while others are still likely to come forward.

[difbrokersponzi]

Has anyone heard of DIF Brokers? I am worried as I have money with them and there is a very strong rumour that they have some sort of Ponzi scheme going with other clients in Israel. An ex-colleague tolme they are crossing trades amongst and between the client Accounts with their own off shore accounts. They place simultaneous buys and sells, allocate each side’s ownership, then when each trade closed out, reallocate and place winning side in their own offshore accounts, thus losing at preallocated customer accounts like mine". Can someone who knows them help? Is this possible? Seems like printing money?

[lawyer-scams]

We are lawyers representing a client who says he suspects this happened to him too. We would like to talk to you to cross information to see if there is anything in common. We have yet another Portuguese investor cotemplating legal action who might be willing to show his statement.Thank You!