Wall Street big’s arrest sent tremors into Palm Beach
Tags: Bernie Madoff, Norm Goldblum, Palm Beach, Ruth Madoff
| Thursday 11 December 2008 7:41 pm
Bernie Madoff, 70, was arrested by FBI agents in Manhattan Thursday.
The arrest of securities broker and advisory firm founder Bernie Madoff sent Palm Beach into a frenzy Thursday.
Part-time Palm Beacher Madoff, 70, was arrested by FBI agents in Manhattan for allegedly running what the Securities and Exchange Commission called “a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme that he perpetrated on advisory clients of his firm.”
Those clients, according to Bloomberg.com, include hedge funds, banks and wealthy individuals.
The latter, of course, Madoff found in Palm Beach.
“He’s a member of the Palm Beach Country Club and we had neighboring boat slips,” said former town councilman Norm Goldblum. “I never invested with him, so I don’t know how he operated. I’m very conservative and I stuck with municipal bonds.
“But I know a lot of club members and people on the island gave him money.
“With me, he kept to himself. I had my business, and he had his.”
The country club traditionally has catered to Jewish families, including some of the town’s richest people.
“At one point, he was the favored broker of Palm Beach,” said another club member who ask that her name not be used. “Every big guy was his client. I’ve received dozens of calls about this today. There are a lot of people who lost a whole lot of money with this guy. But no one will admit to it in public.”
Madoff’s wife Ruth is listed as the official and sole owner of the couple’s mansion on North Lake Way. The Madoffs bought the place in 1967 for $79,000, according to country records. It’s now appraised at $9.3 million.
Charged with securities fraud, Madoff was released later Thursday on $10 million-bond guaranteed by Ruth.
According to Bloomberg.com, the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities had $17 billion in assets under management in November. Authorities are trying to figure what’s left. Word on The Island is that it could be as little as $2 million.
Merry Christmas from Wall Street… too bad Madoff will never be able to repay society for the staggering amount he stole
I live in the cheap seats of Palm Beach County - so this is a spectator matter for me. The Bloomberg article was an eye-opener - the auditors for this massive hedge fund were housed in an office 12 by 18 feet (!) Gee, maybe they delivered what Madoff requested. It is astonishing that the larger the scam, the greater the $ people put at risk, the less scrutiny they apply.
The “LOVE” of money is the root of all evil. Greed and more greed. The amounts of money are staggering and theres kids in Haiti eating cookies made of dirt mixed with flour to fend off the feeling of hunger. The milk of human kindness does not flow through their veins.
i left west palm beach area,el cid area in february because i could not find a all around excellent paint company to work for,as i new more than they did,the paint work was substandard to say the least,overkill with bondo,steaky lap marked ceilings,paint all over the hardware and marble floors,good money thrown away,so it does not surprise me to see more good money thrown away in palm beach,greed breeds greed,you got what you deserved,palm beach caters to illegals(alledgedly) at the breakers,flagler museum,4 seasons,all your hotels,fast food operations,hospitals,super markets,palm beach post as well,the government has done nothing about any of those issues,so lending money to illegals and others has bankrupted this country,la raza 9 billions in fees to get illegals and others homes,got quick equity bought suvs,big sceen tvs,boats,etc………..so you got what you deserved down there,caucasions are second class citizens in palm beach and surrounding areas,i found that out first hand,now crime has come full circle,first all the illegals,robbing ang killing people,and now palm beach society finishing it off with one of its own involved in and ellaborate rip off scheme to end the year in palm beach county,,,,,,bah humbug…….what happened to palm beach county cica 1970’s ? cuba opened its jails in 1976,our borders were never dealt with,crime rampant among foreign illegal nationals etc.amen, i now can rest,what a glorious way to end 2008,you all deserve each other…………..
i left west palm beach area,el cid area in february because i could not find a all around excellent paint company to work for,as i new more than they did,the paint work was substandard to say the least,overkill with bondo,streaky lap marked ceilings,paint all over the hardware and marble floors,good money thrown away,so it does not surprise me to see more good money thrown away in palm beach,greed breeds greed,you got what you deserved,palm beach caters to illegals(alledgedly) at the breakers,flagler museum,4 seasons,all your hotels,fast food operations,hospitals,super markets,palm beach post as well,the government has done nothing about any of those issues,so lending money to illegals and others has bankrupted this country,la raza 9 billions in fees to get illegals and others homes,got quick equity bought suvs,big sceen tvs,boats,etc………..so you got what you deserved down there,caucasions are second class citizens in palm beach and surrounding areas,i found that out first hand,now crime has come full circle,first all the illegals,robbing ang killing people,and now palm beach society finishing it off with one of its own involved in and ellaborate rip off scheme to end the year in palm beach county,,,,,,bah humbug…….what happened to palm beach county circa 1970’s ? cuba opened its jails in 1976,our borders were never dealt with,crime rampant among foreign illegal nationals etc.amen, i now can rest,what a glorious way to end 2008,you all deserve each other…………..
What was that rant all about?
This guy Madoff was a NY type come here to Rob and steal.
What does that have to do with Bad Paint and immigration.
BTW, since you speak in sweeping generalizations.
Immigrants built this country and are more honest than many of our welfare-taking residents.
Also, Mr. Madoff was a good-old US Citizen…probably an 3rd generation immigrant turned ignorant immigrant hater.
Immigrants are courteous and hard working and honest by a wide margin….maybe not every single but most are…..you simply don’t know the right ones.
Are problems are with our own people at home.
boo hoo hoo, rich people getting scammed out of money always ruins my week. Welcome to the middle class!!!
There will be more Palm Beach rats arrested in the coming year. Count on it! Many Islanders will be trading tailor made pinstriped for jumpsuits soon!
It’s sad to see however not surprising. The sad
is people like “adrian nunes” (hope ur not latino)
blaming the ECONOMY on Hispanics? The real issue
is that people like you who can’t find a job because
YOUR the real problem however you have to blame others.
I take it your resume is 4 pages long and your on your
second wife-lol. Thank God you left Palm Beach.
Behind every fortune is a crime. And whether it is petty street crimes or white collar larceny, people who commit crimes are at a much greater risk of being a victim of crime. Don’t feel sorry for these people, they made their bed…
Hey Palm Beachers, what’s the scandal for? Don´t you remember the famous guy of Metro Media Group that had investments in China, the Ningbo Telephone Company back in the nineties ? His gang got away with hundreds of millions and no one said a word………
I’m so sick of these big wigs living the high life and getting away with it, while the rest of us in the working class are struggling just to make ends meet. He should fry! THEY SHOULD FRY ALL OF YOU WHO THINK YOU ARE ABOVE THE LAW! Whether you live in PB or NYC, which we have lived in both and struggled in both….because of people like this who live in a lifestyle we can never obtain by working hard and getting by - because we taxpayers get to foot the bill for their trials due to their inhuman errors. They should just execute and be done with em, save us some middle classers some money for once. POWER TO THE LITTLE PEOPLE!
We all should watch “Fight Club”….this whole country is thinking wrong and corrupt.
This is not how to build a capitalist nation…with speculation, dervivatives and turning wall street into a casino.
We need to return to simple and honest human values…something our political, legal and business leaders have all forgotten long ago while sipping wine and sampling their foie gras.
“Let them eat cake?”
The day of reckoning is coming for these people…..
Good read:
“The New Debtor’s Prison: Turning Subprime Mortgages to Investment Grade”
by MrArbitrage
http://www.MikeDitkaForSenate.com
Madoff has decided to an Alford plea and will get 5 years, no money to give back to investors. I learned about this scam last year, but nobody cared. Everyone ignored me. Everyone.
[...] Trigaux has a round-up post on Madoff’s Florida connection that leads to a post on the country club connection. [...]
The person who was the painter sounds illiterate because the grammar was bad and the post just rambled. For instance, she used new instead of knew.
wendell maness, what do you mean you learned of this last year? who did you tell? how did you learn of this?actually, people who invested with bernie for more than 4 years are just about even with those of us who have been the market legitimately. they received 60% of their initial investment back within four years. we have lost 40% of our investments over the last few months. aren’t we even?
talk about loyalty - osama bin madoff’s kids “ratted” him out. nice family. madoff - jihadist tool.
doubt madoff’s own a ford, gm, chrysler product. nice family.
Here we go again! It is so sickening that making money the “old fashion way” EARN IT BY WORKING
Here we go again! It is so sickening that making money the “old fashion way” EARN IT BY WORKING has gone out the window just like HONESTY, LOYALTY AND REPUTATION! I do feel bad for the charitable organizations as they give and do much for us lower income slobs! I know they are just PEOPLE (?) but they are making it harder and harder to be proud of our country. Who else are we going to bail out?
Einstein’s comment is correct. Nobody talks about it but the Kennedy fortune was made from bootlegging!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes I tried to tell everyone. I had NO money invested now or ever with him. I buy bonds only. I was approached, then told not to invest by someone else. Evidence : there is no way to constantly beat 5,600 mutual funds. Its impossible. People thought it was front running and started bailing last year. Surprised people didnt hear about it. Sorry for all the pain he caused. But if something looks perfecr, you can bet its not.
i love bernie. he outsmarted you guys…ha ha ha