by: Richard Friedman

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:01:48 +0000

I take great exception to your negative comments about the everyday Madoff investors, conveniently couched in your comment about being “moderately sympathetic” towards them. Madoff investors are indeed guilty about believing in a corrupt SEC that first stated that they suspected in 1002 that there was a Ponzi scheme going on, then 2 weeks later stated that Bernard Madoff was the money manager and that he was investigated and was clean. We are guilty of believing that the securities industry could elect as the Chairman of the Nasdaq exchange a man who could be guilty of running the largest Ponzi scheme in history. We are guilty of believing that since Ponzi schemes never last for more than a couple of years at most that Madoff, in business since 1960, could possibly be doing this also, especially in view of the SEC “blessing.” And lastly, though it is not a crime to be “greedy,” a word tossed around a lot these days, most Madoff investors were very satisfied in receiving 12 to 15% steady returns, certainly not “excessive” when the general stock market was returning 20 to 40% each year during the 1990’s, and thought of ourselves as having a conservative investment. We are fighting a long uphill battle to get back from the governemnt our own income taxes paid on phantom income, which the recent IRS guidelines will help some of us. We are fighting against SIPC, an agency funded with brokerage money, not taxpayers, that has decided not to follow their own guidelines to deprive investors of monies due them, and to threaten to clawback money that they withdrew from Madoff, thinking it was their own, money that they no longer have. Yes, thank you for your being “moderately sympathetic,” but being understanding and supportive might go a lot further for our cause.

Comments on: what “Bernard Madoff is to individual investors, AIG is to the global financial community”

by: Richard Friedman