Juicy

Zuckerman, Spielberg Lost Madoff Money

More victims of alleged Ponzi scheme.

The carnage continues to spread from the collapse of Bernie Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme. The Wall Street Journal this morning adds new names to the star-studded list of financial and charitable customers who will be affected, including the real estate titan Mort Zuckerman, Steven Spielberg's Wunderkinder Foundation, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, and the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. The process of liquidating the firm’s assets could begin today, and an important question will be whether the firm's trading arm, where Mr. Madoff's two sons worked, was truly separate from the money management side implicated in the criminal scheme. "If it was determined that the firms trading arm is independent, it might represent a valuable asset whose sale could benefit investors." Another variable is the Securities Investor Protection Fund a non-profit that may cover as much as $500,000 of losses per customer, small comfort to the blue chip investors who are exposed for billions of dollars that no longer exist.