Madoff’s Other Victims
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About some of Madoff’s other victims, the ones who don’t make the news.
You’ve probably seen the headlines: Bernard Madoff ran a Pozni scheme that defrauded Steven Spielberg and other millionaires. You may have also heard of Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, the fund manager, who committed suicide after losing a billion dollars in Madoff’s scheme. This article is not about them though; it’s about Madoff’s other victims. You see, a lot of the people who lost money were philanthropic foundations. Many (like the JEHT Foundation) were forced to close. And that has had and will continue to have terrible consequences for people throughout the United States.
The youngsters of Lazore County, Pennsylvania may once again be sent home to juvenile centers without first being able to consult a lawyer. The Juvenile Law Center sued Pennsylvania to stop this practice using a grant from the JEHT Foundation. But the Foundation no longer exists—and the Law Center is not sure whether it will be able to find the funds to continue its work.
Holocaust survivors may find themselves on the streets again. The Elie Wiesel Foundation invested heavily with Madoff to help these people who do not qualify for government support. The Elie Wiesel Foundation filled that gap for many of these people so that they could live out the remainder of their lives in dignity. But like the JEHT, the Elie Wiesel Foundation gave almost all its assets to Madoff.
The Steven Spielberg Wunderkinder Foundation has been helping children throughout the United States. Whether those were ill children in hospitals and community health clinics like Vista Del Mar, Family Services and Cedars-Medical Center or children who needed help developing their talents with the help of the Young Musicians Foundation. The Wunderkind Foundation had invested a “significant” portion of its portfolio with Madoff and, although as of this writing it has not closed, it is not going to be able to give as much as before. How will these ill children get medical attention now? How will the budding (but poor) young musician find money to buy that first instrument?
Half of Carl and Ruth Shapiro Foundation’s assets went to Madoff. This Foundation supported public radio and broadcasting (it’s not an accident that we’re seeing so many calls for support from our local public stations) and cancer research and treatment at the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center. The Center is one of the few places in the world where you can get treatment for difuse pontine glioma—a cancer whose causes are largely unknown but whose victims have less than a five percent chance of surviving.
Cancer victims, sick children whose families are too poor to take them anywhere except a local free clinic, kids who are jailed without getting a chance at rehabilitation, homeless and traumatized Holocaust survivors, kids from poor families who have a gift—these people don’t make the headlines; Steven Spielberg does. But to me, these are Madoff’s real victims.
11 Comments
What a tragedy! This criminal obviously has no conscience. Just goes to show how the decisions each one of us makes can make such a huge difference to do good or to harm our fellow man.
He should be held accountable for much more than fraud! Just when you think you’ve heard it all some other unimaginable crime pops up! Evil comes in all forms.
thanks for enlightening us on this evil doer,Inna.
Madoff is facing excommunication–something that hasn’t happened (as far as I’m aware at least) in hundreds of years. I can’t offer an opinion on that since 1) I am not terribly religious and 2) I am not convinced that Madoff is terribly religious (in other words–what’s the point?) but there you have it.
Regards,
Inna
Terrible news. I hope he gets what he deserve.
a gruesome crime he committed, but definitely he will not escape the law.
I agree to all of you here, the offender must deserve their punishment.
I’m not aware of this, thanks for the info Inna!
BC Doan–
I would hazard that most people are not aware of this. It’s the way the news is being reported, you see. We hear that Spielberg lost millions and we assume that oh, his personal account took a hit. That may (to a small extent) be true but Steven Spielberg like most of the millionaires we’re hearing about doesn’t actually manage his own personal finances. He has professionals to do that. As a result, his personal accounts were (in all likelihood) not nearly as exposed as his charity–which he manages himself.
And I mean it makes sense, right? Think if you were Spielberg. Because it’s not like he’s all that different from you and me (just richer). You would want a professional to manage your accounts (because the tax code is so complicated — and gets more so the more money you make) but you would want to personally manage your good deeds. I mean what’s the point of doing something like the Wunderkind Foundation if you hire someone else to do it for you?
So you’d manage it yourself. You’d make the investments yourself and you’d make the grants yourself.
So when we hear that Millionaire X lost Y million with Madoff, odds are it’s not his personal account we’re hearing about; but his charitable foundation. But the news doesn’t tell us one way or the other–it doesn’t fit into the 3-second sound bite. So I wrote this piece…
Regards,
Inna
I hope that charitable organizations will learn from this not to place all their funds into one basket or in the hands of one manager.
Greed rules again!
Good article, Inna. Too many times we see these swindlers and scam artists get a few years’ jail time and that’s all, while the victims’ lives are never the same. There’s never any money left to pay back the people who lost their life’s savings from people like Madoff. The Spielbergs of the world will survive this, but many others won’t. Thanks for reminding us of that.