Investor Exposure to Madoff Scheme Keeps Growing

List of Madoff victims unfortunately keeps growing. Here is another investor story coming from author, former editor-in chief of Self Magazine, and a prominent New York artist, Alexandra Penney writing in the Daily Beast:

Last Thursday at around 5 p.m., I had just checked on a rising cheese soufflé in my oven when my best friend called.

“Heard Madoff’s been arrested,” she said. “I hope it’s a rumor. Doesn’t he handle most of your money?”

Indeed, he did. More than a decade ago, when I was in my late 40s, I handed over my life savings to Madoff’s firm. It was money I’d been tucking away since I was 16-years-old, when I began working summers in Lord & Taylor, earning about $65 a week. Not a penny was inherited. Not one cent was from my divorce. I earned all of it myself, through a long string of jobs that included working as a cashier at Rosedale fish market in New York City in my twenties, and later, writing bestselling sex books.

When I hung up with my friend, I turned on the TV, and began to scour Google for news until the message became nauseatingly clear: Forty years of savings—the money I’d counted on to take me comfortably through the next thirty years—had likely evaporated in Madoff’s scheme.

THAT MOTHERFUCKER!! The soufflé fell.

I called Dennis, my consort of 16 years, and he canceled the dinner guests. I took half of a very strong tranquilizer that I’d been stashing for years in case of a death in the family.

…

The Madoff Connection

There appeared to be a secret society of Madoff investors. A friend who was older, wealthier and more established somehow got me in. I’ve always had good luck, and I thought it was another stroke of good fortune to be invested with the legendary Bernard Madoff.

Every month I got detailed statements, and my money looked to be growing around 9 to 11%. It didn’t seem greedy because I knew people other people who were making 15 or 20%. I thought “this is just a very smart investor.”

I never even knew what Madoff looked like. But now I obliterate his face when I see it on television.

…

How will I make money?

The art market, as everyone pretty much knows, is dead. If I can’t sell my work, I am going to have to find some way to make money.

I’ve lived a great and interesting life. I love beautiful things: high thread count sheets, old china, watches, jewelry, Hermes purses and Louboutin shoes. I like expensive French milled soap, good wines and white truffles. I have given extravagant gifts like diamond earrings. I traveled a lot. In this last year, I’ve been Laos, Cambodia, India, Russia, and Berlin for my first solo art show. Will I ever be able to explore exotic places again?

Since this happened last Thursday, I have barely left my apartment, I haven’t been out for dinner; haven’t bought groceries. Can’t remember the last time I ate a full meal. Food, which is one of my most favorite things in the world, has become meaningless. But I look on that as an upside.

Yesterday, I took my first subway in 30 years. Dennis came with me to show me how to get a MetroCard. The world looks very different from a crowded Lexington Avenue number 6 train.

The list of people and entities that entrusted their money and got burned by Burnie includes: Steven Spielberg’s charity, Wunderkinder Foundation; Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel’s Foundation for Humanity. Also, the Chais Family Foundation, which donated $12 million a year to Jewish causes lost everything. Mort Zuckerman’s charity lost $30 million. Meanwhile, a Jewish charity abruptly shut down after losing its entire endowment.

Early today, Japan’s largest brokerage, Nomura Holdings said the firm had lost over $300 million. European media also reported Union Bancaire Privée of Switzerland may have lost up to $1 billion.

Madoff Exposure List – DJ

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