Results tagged “victims”

The family of Diane Schuler continued their media push, in an attempt to dispute findings that she was drunk and high when she crashed a minivan carrying five children into an SUV carrying three adults on the Taconic State Parkway while driving from a Sullivan County campground back to Long Island two weeks ago. She killed herself, her daughter, three nieces, and the SUV's driver and passengers. Her husband Danny said, "She is not an alcoholic and my heart is rested every night when I go to bed." And today, his lawyer, sister-in-law and a private investigator appeared on the Today show: Lawyer Dominic Barbara said, "We all have to accept certain facts. When she left the campground, she was absolutely sober," while Danny Schuler's sister said, "We just can't explain what happened to Diane," and emphasized her sister-in-law did not drink heavily, only socially.

With Ponzi scheme "investor" Bernard Madoff reportedly set to plead guilty to cheating his client out of billions, a former federal prosecutor tells the Post, "This guy is going to die in jail...He's got nothing to negotiate with. There is absolutely no deal that can be cut unless he can give up Hillary Clinton or someone like that." (The Post envisions that Bernie's cellmate will be named Bubba.) Newsday reports that "Manhattan federal judge Denny Chin said he is allowing the government to notify by Internet Web site postings the thousands of Madoff investors burned in the scandal that they have the right to appear in court on March 12." Madoff investors who wish to speak must email the U.S. Attorney's office (at usanys.madoff@usdoj.gov ) by Wednesday 10 a.m. We hope if victims are allowed to speak that Elie Wiesel is one of them. Last week the Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winner Wiesel, whose charity lost eveything, said, "It's the inhumanity in this man who simply believed he can go around depriving people of their livelihoods. What he has done to certain people, it breaks my heart."

As media outlets continue to sift through the list of Bernard Madoff's victims, additional names emerge, like that of actor John Malkovich alongside regular folks. One, 82-year-old widow Bianca Murray, received call from someone who saw her name on the now-public list—the stranger suggested she get a lawyer. The Post called another victim, who said, "I thought it was confidential. I had no idea my name would be out there." But some victims' names aren't on the list—because their bank invested their money in Madoff's funds without their knowledge. According to the NY Times, since the Westport National Bank's Madoff account was in the bank's name, its customers whose money was sunk into the Ponzi scheme "may not qualify for the federal securities insurance program that is expected to cushion investors’ losses."

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."

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.

Friday's fatal crane collapse at East 91st St. and First Avenue was a horrible shock, but the sad truth is that neighborhood residents had been worried about the crane for a while.