Results tagged “investment”

Irving Picard, the trustee who is liquidating whatever can be found of Ponzi king Bernard Madoff's fortune for in order to repay his thousands of victims, says that he's going to sue Madoff's two sons, Mark and Andrew, as well as his brother Peter and niece Shana, noting that they made $150 million over the years. All four were employed at Madoff's firm and Picard said he'll sue them for negligence and breach of fiduciary duty, "Whether or not they have a criminal problem we will pursue them as far as we can pursue them and if that leads to bankrupting them, then that's what will happen."

Hey, you've lost your life savings of $120,000 to $150,000 with an investor who was apparently running a $40 million scam out of a Bay Ridge storefront—what do you tell the Daily News? If you're Barbara Grebin, you say, "I don't hate him; I wouldn't want to waste my time hating anybody," but you make sure to add, "But I would like to throw him down the sewer." Philip Barry is accused of running a Ponzi scheme with dozens of victims—even NY State Conservative Party boss Michael Long lost $15,000, yet Long said, "I don't think he's a crook. I think he really felt that he was investing wisely and making money for people." Hence Barry's comment to the Daily News, "It's all in real estate. I'm going to keep on working to make sure everyone gets the profit they are entitled to." (Maybe his modest behavior had people hooked, too: "Investors said he was even too cheap to buy a sandwich for lunch... he brought in packets of cheese and bread to make his own.") While the authorities haven't charged him with a crime—though documents show he was promising clients returns of 12-36%—a judge ordered that he pay "hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages" to clients.

A group of NHL players is suing developer Ken Jowdy for taking the $25 million they invested in golf courses because they accuse him of "blowing it on parties packed with porn stars, hookers and his preferred baseball buddies, including ex-Yankees Roger Clemens and Reggie Jackson." The Post reports that one lawsuit's claims include: "Put a Clemens gal pal named Adrian Moore, described as a 'regular party attendee who was close to Clemens,' on his payroll 'as a personal favor' to the former Yankee Cy Young winner" and "Hired Brian MacNamee - the onetime Clemens trainer who told Congress he supplied the ballplayer with steroids - as a fitness trainer." The plaintiffs are seeking the $25 million back plus $15 million in damages, but Jowdy told the News, "There's not one statement of fact in the [lawsuit]...All I have to do is tell the truth. I have nothing to hide." Jowdy says he'll sue for libel.

Police sources say that William Parente apparently was in financial trouble when he killed his wife and two daughters (before killing himself) in a Maryland hotel room. Papers found in the hotel room indicted that investors wanted their money back from the lawyer's investment scheme. A friend told Newsday that "he took calls from the worried investors, who had given Parente as much as $6 million and as little as $50,000" and the Post suggests Parente may have handled $20 million of investor money.

At first, we thought this Bloomberg News lede was from The Onion: "The New York Lottery is proposing a gamble where the odds aren’t always in its favor -- moving its $1.3 billion prize fund into investments such as stocks, corporate bonds, real estate and hedge funds and out of the safety of U.S. Treasuries." But it turns out lottery officials are really considering the risky move in order to increase revenue, as the state faces a huge budget deficit. Lottery director Gordon Mendencia tells Bloomberg News, “We’re not going to be wild and crazy with investments" and is looking for “solid investments, like a pension fund or endowment" that will perform well, versus the Treasury bonds that have been yielding very little. If the NY Lottery did switch to higher-performing investments, it might be able to reduce the lump sum payments given to winners and free up money for state education funding. One lottery enthusiast is okay with that: "If I win $30 million, it won’t break my heart if the cash prize is $18 million instead of 20.”

Bernard Madoff, who says his investment business was actually a Ponzi scheme estimated at $50 billion, is scheduled to appear in court today for a bail hearing. Bloomberg News reports, "The government may ask that Madoff’s bail conditions be modified, including that bail be withdrawn and the former executive imprisoned." Madoff is currently on $10 million bond and is under house arrest at his East 64th Street penthouse apartment.

It's time for billion-dollar Ponzi schemester Bernard Madoff to come clean... or at least as clean as he can: According to the NY Times, a judge has "established Wednesday as the deadline for Mr. Madoff to provide federal securities regulators with a full accounting of his and his New York firm’s assets — from real estate to art works to bank accounts."

A federal judge ruled that Bernard Madoff, who admitted to running a multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme with investor money, must disclose all his assets to regulators. Bloomberg News reports that he "must provide a detailed list of all investments, loans, lines of credit, business interests, brokerage accounts and other holdings" to the SEC by New Year's Eve, as investors hover to recoup some of their money.

being threatened. According to the Daily News, a source "who knows several of Madoff's affluent victims" said, "Bernie has been told that if he doesn't cough up every dime he has hidden in offshore accounts, someone in his family will be killed." Another source adds "at least one of the threats was aimed solely at Madoff, and that the matter was referred to the FBI."

The NY Post caught Bernard Madoff, who admitted his business was actually Ponzi scheme and probably lost around $50 billion of investors' money, "skulking" out of his East 64th Street apartment building and calls him "the Grinch who stole...everything"—as well as the "Most Hated Man in NYC." The Daily News runs down some developments, like how the FBI is looking for witnesses (like "the auditors working from a New City, Rockland County, storefront who certified Madoff's investment firm as 'solvent'") and the NY Times says that, so far, Madoff's family does not appear to be involved in the scam.

Securities and Exchange Commission inspectors have been working overtime to go through the records of Bernard Madoff and his investment firm. Bloomberg News reports that investigators "found evidence he ran an unregistered money-management business alongside his firm’s brokerage and investment-advisory subsidiaries." Also, "Investigators are still trying to figure out where customers’ money went," as Madoff's estimate of $50 billion in losses may be "roughly accurate."

The Securities and Exchange Commission's associate director of enforcement Andrew Calamari (Calamari!) said, "Our complaint alleges a stunning fraud that appears to be of epic proportions." The criminal complaint suggests that Madoff "deceived investors by operating a securities business in which he traded and lost investor money, and then paid certain investors purported returns on investment with the principal received from other, different investors, which resulted in losses of approximately billions of dollars." Yup, that sounds like a Ponzi scheme! The complaint also says, per employees, Madoff ran the "investment business" on a separate floor and was "cryptic" about it. The NY Times says this might be the largest fraud in Wall Street history.

The artificial turf being used to replace natural grass in NYC parks has been pointed out as a source of unhealthful emissions, but it's also just plain hot. The Daily News dispatched reporters with thermometers to five City parks with artificial grass and found that urban athletes had more to fear than ill-fitting footwear when it comes to blistered feet.

Over two mildly warm days last month, The News took surface temperature readings at five synthetic fields across the city accompanied by NYC Park Advocates, a group that has been critical of the fake grass.

Continue reading "Smokin'-Hot Grass in City Parks Could Get You Burned"