Many Are Losing Faith in Bernard Madoff

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international newsmoney & finance

Many Are Losing Faith in Bernard Madoff

Adam Kirchner

Posted: Jan 24th 2009 10:26PM

Filed under: Religion, International News, Money, Towson University

Since December 11, Bernard Madoff has been possibly the most infamous man on the planet, and even before he faces indictment on February 11, things just keep getting worse. Although he still enjoys the right to due process and the implicit presumption of innocence until he has been proven guilty, he has essentially waived that, both in private and in public.

On December 10, in a discussion regarding the order of a premature payment of annual bonuses to employees with his sons Mark and Andrew, Madoff admitted to them that the investment arm of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC was "all just one big lie." The day afterward, they turned their father over to the FBI.

Before being taken into custody on December 11, Madoff told two FBI agents that "there is no innocent explanation" for his actions.

According to a Securities and Exchange Comission complaint, $50 billion in investments can not be paid because Madoff had been paying investors with, in his own words, "money that wasn't there."

While under house arrest, Madoff mailed $1 million in jewelry as gifts rather than letting them become seized as assets due to victims of his alleged decades of fraud.

Earlier this week, Reuters reported that Rabbi Joshua Hammerman of the Temple Beth El in Stamford, Connecticut sent a letter to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, seeking the excommunication of Madoff from Judaism. A direct quote from the Reuters article: "Hammerman, of Temple Beth El, said that Madoff's alleged crimes are so deep there is no other appropriate response from American Jews than to kick him out of the faith".

The New York Times maintains an updating list of worldwide BMIS investors. The charity founded by Holocaust survivor and 1986 Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel has issued a public statement that "substantially all of the Foundation's assets," $15.2 million, were lost to Madoff.

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7:20AM 7:20AM Jan 25th 2009

Stupid Title- EYE catching. "Loosing Faith" - no it's LOST including everyones lifes savings who trusted this creep.

Rating : 2 stars Reply to this commentReport!

nick

9:40AM 9:40AM Jan 25th 2009

Adam Kirchner the jews who were investing with this thug where greedy, they thought he was taking care of them because they were jews and they were getting special treatment, they were right he was giving them the special hose job.

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martin nat

4:18PM 4:18PM Jan 26th 2009

I didn't know Jews were the only ones who want the best bang for their buck.It seems many others invested with Madoff also. No single ethnic group has a monopoly on greed. Perhaps the writer of the comment that I am responding to should check his own investments and give back the excess profit.

Rating : 2 stars Report!

Angiebaby

11:35AM 11:35AM Jan 25th 2009

Many are losing faith in Bernard Madoff? No shit. And to which intellectually astute member of Bright Hall, Dim Bulb, do we credit with this old news, oops, um... startling revelation?

Rating : 3 stars Reply to this commentReport!

Cristy

12:52PM 12:52PM Jan 25th 2009

Nice - so even G-d gives up on you when you have done something wrong, IF you are Jewish. What kind of "faith" is that? To boot someone out of your religion because they sinned? Unless it is because money is more important than eternal salvation. Growing up Catholic but always sensitive to the Jewish side of my family, I am disgusted by what appears to be a complete lack of compassion from those that should surely understand the meaning of it after the holocaust. Perhaps money, power, and revenge trump eternal life with G-d. Madoff is a complete jerk who deserves hell on earth, but who are we to decide about his standing in the hereafter??

Rating : 2.5 stars Reply to this commentReport!

i_dont_need

7:10PM 7:10PM Jan 25th 2009

Actually, having grown up as an Orthodox Jew, I think that the Reform rabbi who wants Madoff excommunicated should know better: there is no such thing as excommunication in Judaism. It isn't a centralized organization like, say the Catholic Church, so there's nothing to kick him out of. The rabbi or board of his local synagogue or congregation could, I suppose, kick him out, but there's no such thing as being denied the right to practice Judaism. Judaism doesn't even recognize conversions out of the faith; a Jew who "converts" to Christianity/Islam/Baha'i etc. is considered to be a Jew who is disobeying the religious laws of Judaism, not some sort of "ex-Jew".

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grim reaper

4:19PM 4:19PM Jan 25th 2009

His investment fund paid 18% every year for 20 years which is still better then the S&P !! The stock market is just one giant ponzi scheme...at least he has come clean about it.

Rating : 2 stars Reply to this commentReport!

JOSIE

6:46PM 6:46PM Jan 25th 2009

TRUMP POCKETS YOUR INVESTMENT AND DECLARES BANKRUPTCY AND IS LAUDED BY THE MEDIA. WHAT A JOKE IS THIS CAPITALISTIC SYSTEM.

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Cynthia

1:37PM 1:37PM Jan 26th 2009

"Made-off" is a thief and deserves to be in prison for a very long time. What was the Senate oversight committee doing (or not doing, plus the useless SEC) to protect citizens from such a piggy predator? NOTHING. And now we are finding that many in the financial world (hedge funds, leverging--new math) were/are screwing us to the tune of god knows how much money? Many of these financial leaders were taking home up to 1 billion a year. This Country is bankrupt, and we are in a depression (not recession) all due to fraud and GREED. It makes me want to puke.

Rating : 2 stars Reply to this commentReport!