ponzi schemes | Observer

By Kim Velsey 1/22 5:15pm

Prison-bound Peter Madoff To Spend Last Days of Freedom In Aptly-named Liberty House

It has a 24-hour doorman and river views, but the real appeal of 377 Rector Place—a building that is about as bland as a luxury tower can be—lies in its name: Liberty House. Particularly if one is about to start a 10-year prison sentence.

The New York Post reports that Peter Madoff and wife Marion have moved into a $3,200-per month one-bedroom rental in the Battery Park City building. For someone who has agreed, as part of plea bargain, to the criminal forfeiture of $143.1 billion, including all real estate and personal property, a rental is definitely the way to go. Read More

By Elise Knutsen 1/13/12 10:54am

Manhattan Transfers

U.S. Government Sells Ponzi Schemer Scott Rothstein’s $5 M. Bloomberg Pad

Lawyer Scott Rothstein was living high back in 2006. The Bronx-born boy turned Florida legal eagle led the life of the .1 percenter, which, in his words consisted of “the ability to do whatever you want, whenever you want, wherever you want, by whatever means you can think of.”

Back in 2009, Mr. Rothstein, however, his house of cards came crashing down when the feds caught wind of his side project, a “structured settlement” plot that evolved into a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme. Now serving a fifty-year sentence in a Floridian federal penitentiary, another house in Mr. Rothstein’s once stacked deck has disappeared: a home once belonging to Mr. Rothstein, then seized by the U.S government, has sold for $5.09 million, city records show. Read More

By Foster Kamer 9/23/11 5:16pm

FINANCIAL CRIMINAL OF THE DAY

Financial Criminal of the Day: Retired NBA Star-Turned-Ponzi-Schemer

What’s with retired athletes having second careers as financial criminals? Read More

By Foster Kamer 8/29/11 4:44pm

FINANCIAL CRIMINAL OF THE DAY

Florida Ponzi Scheme Conning $22 M. Out of Teachers and Retirees, Busted

And you thought Ponzi schemes went out with Bernie Madoff? Think again! This one is even trashier and crueler. Who runs a Ponzi scheme built to screw over a hundred teachers and retirees of Florida out of $22M? Read More

By Mike Taylor 1/21/11 4:36pm

Ponzi Schemes

Is Facebook a Ponzi Scheme? One Blogger Says Yes

Ponzi schemes, and calling things Ponzi schemes, is majorly in fashion these days, thanks in part to the conviction of actual Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, but also because “Ponzi scheme” is just a fun thing to say. And so in that spirit we get analyses like “Yahoo! was a Ponzi scheme” and “Social Read More

By Mike Taylor 1/03/11 7:07pm

Ponzi Schemes

Former Madoff Aide Pleads for Release

After a judge sent her to jail last month, former Bernie Madoff employee Annette Bongiorno is once again asking to please be let out on bail, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Authorities accuse the 62-year-old ex-Madoff assistant of defrauding investors and helping keep Mr. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme in motion. Says The Journal:

Read More

By Mike Taylor 12/21/10 8:15pm

Ponzi Schemes

Former Madoff Employee Goes to Jail

Looks like Annette Bongiorno, one of the two former employees of convicted Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, is headed for jail after a judge today ordered the revocation of her bail. The former Madoff secretary was arrested Nov. 18 along with former coworker JoAnn Crupi on charges of fraud and conspiracy. U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Read More

By Mike Taylor 12/17/10 4:37pm

Ponzi Schemes

Madoff Settlement in the Works: $7 B. On the Line

A huge settlement of claims by Madoff trustee Irving Picard is in the works, according to The New York Times. Mr. Picard’s legal rampage has ensnared the New York Mets, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase and scores of others, and now he looks ready to add $7 billion to the Bernie Madoff victims’ Read More

By Mike Taylor 12/14/10 2:33pm

Ponzi Schemes

Distressed Asset Firms Offer to Buy Out Madoff Victims

Following the climax of Madoff trustee Irving Picard’s lawsuit frenzy, The New York Times reports that hedge funds and other investors in distressed assets are offering Madoff victims cash up front in exchange for the chance to reap big payouts once Mr. Picard’s crusade gets hashed out in courts.

After Mr. Picard went after Read More

By Mike Taylor 12/11/10 3:15pm

Wall Street

Mark Madoff Found Dead in Apparent Suicide

Mark Madoff, son of convicted Ponzi scheme operator Bernie Madoff, was found dead in his apartment this morning, the two-year anniversary of Bernie Madoff’s confession to his sons that he had been running a fraud. The New York Post reports:

Officers were called to 158 Mercer Street to respond to a report that Read More

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Prison-bound Peter Madoff To Spend Last Days of Freedom In Aptly-named Liberty House

U.S. Government Sells Ponzi Schemer Scott Rothstein’s $5 M. Bloomberg Pad

Financial Criminal of the Day: Retired NBA Star-Turned-Ponzi-Schemer

Florida Ponzi Scheme Conning $22 M. Out of Teachers and Retirees, Busted

Is Facebook a Ponzi Scheme? One Blogger Says Yes

Former Madoff Aide Pleads for Release

Former Madoff Employee Goes to Jail

Madoff Settlement in the Works: $7 B. On the Line

Distressed Asset Firms Offer to Buy Out Madoff Victims

Mark Madoff Found Dead in Apparent Suicide

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