Madoff agrees to give up property, art, tickets

[ensho]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MADOFF_SCANDAL?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-03-03-11-00-28


-snip-

The trustee overseeing the liquidation of Madoff's business said the former money manager was surrendering ownership rights to his business, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, along with the company's artwork and entertainment tickets. The trustee, Irving Picard, did not specify the value of the property or say what kinds of tickets and artwork Madoff possessed.

The ultimate goal is to put some of Madoff's remaining assets in the hands of investors who lost their life savings amid the scandal, and there are growing signs that some of them could see relief in coming weeks.

-snip-

Stephen Harbeck, president of the Securities Investor Protection Corp., told The Associated Press on Tuesday that a group of 10 investors were sent forms late last week or early this week informing them whether they were eligible to receive funds from the organization. SIPC is an industry-funded group that rescues investors when brokerage firms fail, paying them up to $500,000 to recoup losses.

-snip-

"Bernie Madoff has no shortage of chutzpah to suggest as he does that his wife was not the beneficiary of his fraud. It is not only senseless, but offensive," he said.

"Moreover, it's been widely reported that she served as his bookkeeper for a number of years. If true, not only is she civilly culpable, but criminally as well," Weiss said.

Ruth Madoff has not been charged in the case.
---------------------------

Ruthie needs to be charged

and, per the title, if Madoff had not 'agreed' ??!

[Viva_Daddy]

1. Since when do we negotiate with felons as to what their punishment will be?

Give me a break. The man defrauded who knows how many people of who know how much money and he's going to tell the judges how much HE will agree to give up? This is Justice???

[gratuitous]

6. This is the civil end of things

This is the liquidation of the company and distribution of the assets. On the criminal end of things, the process will be slightly different, and I don't think anyone at that time will want to be spending the weekend at Bernie's.

[Matariki]

2. On the question of how to reduce prison population in the US

some clever soul emailed CNN's Jack Cafferty with this:

"put ankle bracelets on them and let them stay at Bernie Madoff's place"

:rofl:

[NC_Nurse]

3. Why the fuck isn't he in jail?

[ensho]

4. white and rich?

nt

[NC_Nurse]

5. Oh, right...damn!

[anigbrowl]

7. The 8th Amendment to the constitution

and before that from the Haebeas corpus act and before that from Magna Carta. Basically, you're entitled to bail unless the prosecution can show you are actively dangerous to those around you. For all Madoff's apparent faults, he doesn't represent any kind of danger to the people of NY.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excessive_bail

Edited to add that the reaason he hasn't been brought to trial yet is because there is so much paperwork to go through to prepare a case. financial/fraud cases usually take the longest to come to trial unless his lawyers try to hurry things up, which they probably won't. I can tell you for a fact that there are between 30 and 50 attorneys working on behalf of the prosecution going through his records right now, and that it's going to take them several more months just to look at all the documents.