Charities the overlooked victims in Madoff swindle (GlobeInvestor)

[eppur_se_muova]

Philanthropic community reeling from firm's collapse as hundreds forced to curtail grants

SINCLAIR STEWART AND PAUL WALDIE

Monday, February 09, 2009

NEW YORK AND TORONTO — On a recent January afternoon, Phillip Shaw was walking the streets of St. Louis, confronting the biting cold and the long odds of landing a job in this wretched economy. His resumé was threadbare, his past troubled, and yet Mr. Shaw couldn't help but feel fortunate - particularly given the way he dodged the Bernard Madoff scandal.
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"I don't know where the luck came from, but it came out of nowhere," he shrugged. "They're the reason I got out of prison. They picked up my case." Other juvenile offenders serving life sentences may not be so lucky. EJI has identified six dozen 13- and 14-year-olds who have been sent to prison for life with no chance of parole, yet because of the Madoff debacle, much of the litigation the institute is pursuing on their behalf is now in jeopardy.
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JEHT was EJI's biggest benefactor. It had committed to give the organization $1.5-million over the next three years to mount its legal challenge against death-in-prison sentences for minors, a sum that enabled Mr. Stevenson to hire more staff and begin filing lawsuits in several states.

He was expecting to read that the initial $500,000 payment had been deposited, but instead he found a terse message: The donors to JEHT, Jeanne Levy-Church and Kenneth Levy-Church, had invested their funds with Mr. Madoff and, as a result, the organization was folding.

"All of our work is absolutely in jeopardy," Mr. Stevenson acknowledged. "The Madoff stuff has put this issue, and these kids and our efforts, back in the position where they may have to be abandoned. I can pay my lawyers next to nothing. I can work 20 hours a day. But you can't get free plane tickets. You can't get free supplies."
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more: http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090209.wibmadoff09/GIStory/

[EmilyAnne]

1. This is awful.

I wonder of he was just a total sociopath, or if his investments started to disappear and he just couldn't own up to it before it got out of control.

I just found out that a friend's retired parents have lost everything through this guy. I am shocked! They were definitely not wealthy people and I would never have imagined them being involved in such an investor. I assumed he was an investor for the rich. One thing my friend said is that he was a very nice man, always available to his clients. He sounds like a sociopath.