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Photograph by Richard Drew/AP
Yesterday, the U.S. Marshals auctioned off the belongings of Bernard and Ruth Madoff—objects as fancy as diamond jewelry and as mundane as stationery—and raked in almost $1 million. Perhaps the most recognizable item for sale, a satin Mets jacket with "MADOFF" embroidered on the back (one of his clients/victims was Mets owner Fred Wilpon), sold for $14,500, well over its $500-720 estimate.
The Post lists some of the impressive sales—including $4,750 for a wooden decoy duck, whose estimate price was $53—that helped net twice what the Marshals expected. And according to the NY Times, St. Louis business Lester Miller spent about $100,000 on various pieces of jewelry, who was happy to bid on the items and know the money would go to the victims: "He said he would divide them among his daughters and granddaughters on a cruise to Mexico next weekend... Asked what he would tell his granddaughters when he gave them the bracelets, he said, 'If it’s too good to be true, it’s not right.'"
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It's all for a good cause, to bring relief to the well-to-do aged and infirm.
un freakin believable.
Here I though everyone is complicating about having no money.
Can you blame Maddof for stealing these people's money when they buy rubbish?
14,500 for a jacket? Is that guy serious? Who care's if it's for the people that lost money.
He could have had a replica made for under $100. Authenticity for an item like that jacket is unnecessary. In fact anyone could knock them off, but I don't think they could sell a lot of them..
1 million whoop de doo. Take away the auctioneer's commission and expenses, blah blah blah, you are probably talking $500,000. Then take off the disbursement costs for lawyers and accountants. Total it all up and the end result is that the tax payers just lost another few hundred thousand.
"...including $4,750 for a wooden decoy duck, whose estimate price was $53" So much for the appraisers. Were they paid to do such a great job of appraising? There are decoys out there that sell a lot higher than $4,750. Try adding a decimal point or two to that figure.
It's a shame he didn't buy any Andy Warhol's 200 one dollar bills back when he was stealing his money. Then I could get excited. But then again he wasn't really a wise investor, was he?
Oops I just realized that he would have to have purchased 1,000 Andy Warhol 200 one dollar bill paintings to cover his losses. I don't know the art market that well but I think it would have been flooded with that image and thence not worth the current auction price received.
The Truth of the Matter
The auctions brought in more money than originally expected. The penthouse sold for a pretty penny. The yachts have floated in a few additional millions to be added to the Madoff pot.
So, the investors will soon reap the benefits of all this transference of money, right? WRONG.
Thanks to the secure financial situation of SIPC trustee Irving Picard, his PR firm has been successful in keeping its client’s actions in the news. However, like any well paid employee-the firm’s loyalty lies with the trustee and thus may be instructed to tell the public their version of reality.
Let me explain...The news feeds report that the money collected from the above sales will go directly to the investors. This is a very simplistic description that eliminates describing the fact that these funds actually go directly to SIPC.
SIPC was created by Congress to instill investor confidence in the financial markets after the 60’s, when American’s were afraid to invest due to rampant fraud in the markets. Congress’ intent was to create SIPC so they would be able to pay investors an advance of money collected from fraudulent brokers while the bankruptcy proceedings were underway. This, to ensure that innocent investors would be able to survive financially while waiting for their funds to be recovered. So, if it’s decided that an investor is not entitled to that advance, than they would not be entitled to the money recovered through the bankruptcy.
Irving Picard, as trustee assigned by SIPC to the Madoff fraud, has decided that he will disallow more than half of the investors’ claims due to his unsupported interpretation of the SIPC rules. He has decided (contrary to past history of how SIPC pays investors) that the money they were told (by the SEC, FINRA, the IRS and SIPC) they had really didn’t exist. However, that is EXACTLY the purpose of SIPC-to ensure investors that if they invested with a fraudulent broker they would be able to recover the monies they were told they had in their accounts. This money, by the way, comes from the other (legitimate) brokers who are members of SIPC-not the US taxpayers, or any government agency.
So, when you read that the money collected at auctions, at liquidation sales and from co-conspirators in the Madoff case goes to the victims, please be aware that this not truly the case-only those victims that Mr. Picard decides are eligible for SIPC coverage will benefit. The thousands of others who believed in Congress’ effort to protect the investor will get nothing.
This, we fear, may hold true for all American investors who feel they are protected in their investments.