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MADOFF VICTIMS SPEAK: THEIR STATEMENTS AT BERNIE’S SENTENCING

The following are transcripts of the statements given by victims of Bernie Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme at his sentencing hearing today. He received a 150 years in prison.

Dominic Ambrosino, retired prison officer:

I thank the court for allowing me to speak today. As a retired New York City Correction Officer, I am very familiar with the inside of a courtroom. However, I never in my wildest dreams ever expected to be sitting in one as a victim of an indescribably heinous crime.

That dream came true on March 12th as I watched Bernie Madoff stand and be cuffed. However, the dream really started as a nightmare on December 11th.

I can remember the exact second my wife told me the news. I immediately knew all the ramifications, but I don’t think she did. The fallout from having your entire life savings drop right out from under your nose is truly like nothing you can ever describe.

At first it was the obvious, and how will we pay our bills? How can someone do this to us? We worked honestly and we worked so hard. This can’t be real. We did nothing wrong.

I don’t know if anyone other than another victim can explain what the less obvious effects are, how every decision directly and indirectly hinged on the fact that we had the security of our savings. When I was able to leave the job, we bought a motor home to travel the country. We took out a mortgage since it was better to keep our savings in Madoff. We sold the house my wife lived in for 27 years and also put all those profits — and they were high — into our Madoff account.

We trusted that the savings and planning would see us through our retirement. We had ideas of traveling the country. It all stopped abruptly on December 11th. As a result, we are left with no permanent house, a depreciating motor home, we are upside down on the loan and an income from my pension that is our life.

This pension used to be perceived as spending money before December 11th, and now although it doesn’t cover our monthly expenses, we rely on it fully. It is all we have.

I sustained a 52 percent hearing loss on my job, and at 49 years old I can’t go back to my previous career so I have taken on a job this summer in Arizona as an construction project coordinator. The job will only last until August. Then I don’t know what I am going to do.

My wife’s foot was run over by a van while in New York City. There was a plea hearing in March. She had a job lined up before the trip. The expenses of the trip were given to us and we had to let it go since she was in a cast for eight weeks. She is now rehabilitating and still feels pain when she stands for long periods of time.

With that background as to who I am, I would like to share some of the specific problems Madoff’s crime brought to us. My pension distribution, a one-time decision, and our health insurance plan, also one-time decision, were based on the fact that we had savings and security with Madoff. If I should die, my wife is left without my income or health insurance.

We sold our home in New York with the expectation that someday we would have the finances to purchase another one. We have no credit now and can’t get a mortgage. We have been forced to take care of people’s homes while they are traveling for the summer, as we used to do prior to December 11th.

We have through the generosity of friends been able to stay rent free on the RV lots of people in the community. This will come to a screeching halt in October when the owners return for the winter season. We don’t know where we’ll go at that time. We don’t have enough income from my pension to pay monthly rent.

The most devastating to us is we lost our freedom. We lost the ability to share our life every day as we explore the country every day. We lost the time to hold hands as we walked. As they say in the commercial, this is priceless.

In closing, I would like to say, Judge Chin, sentencing Bernard L. Madoff to the fullest extent will certainly not eliminate any of the issues I wrote about. It probably won’t even gain me satisfaction. As the guard who used to be on the right side of the prison bars, I’ll know what Mr. Madoff’s experience will be and will know that he is in prison in much the same way he imprisoned us as well as others.

He took from us the freedom that we held so preciously close to our lives, the very thing I always valued and never took for granted. In a sense, I would like someone in the court today to tell me how long is my sentence.

Thank you very much.

Maureen Ebel:

My name is Maureen Ebel and I am a victim of Bernard L. Madoff.

I have lost all of my life’s hard-earned savings. I have lost my life savings because our government has failed me and thousands and thousands of other citizens. There are many levels of government complicity in this crime. The Securities & Exchange Commission, by its total incompetence and criminal negligence, has allowed a psychopath to steal from me and steal from the world.

I am a 61-year-old widow and I am now working full time. I have done many things to survive since December 11th, including selling a lot of my possessions and working three jobs at the same time. I have lost a home that my husband and I had owned for 25 years because of this theft.

I have lost my ability to care for myself in my old age. I have lost the ability to donate to charity, especially the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I have lost my ability to donate my time working for that charity as I had done in the past because now I must work full time in order to eat.

I have lost the ability to help future generations of my family get an education. I have lost the ability to help them with their housing needs. It pains my so much to remember my husband getting up in the middle of the night. He was a very fine physician. He would get up in the middle of the night year after year in all kinds of weather to go to the hospital to save someone’s life in rain, ice and snow. He would save someone’s life so that Bernie Madoff could buy his wife another party rock.

I have lost the ability to move around the world freely at this stage in my life using the money my husband and I have worked so hard to earn. We had worked, saved and planned for our old age so that we could leave something behind and not be a burden when we became sick and old.

The emotional toll that this has taken on me has been devastating. I have had great pain and suffering at the hands of Bernie Madoff. My health deteriorated rapidly after December 11th. I could not eat or sleep. I was very agitated and hyperactive. I had all the signs and symptoms of someone undergoing great stress. I suffered rapid weight loss, rapid heart rate, sweating, insomnia and sometimes spells.

I had the horrible feeling that I had been pushed into the great black abyss, but I could not indulge these paralyzing feelings too long. I had work to do.

While experiencing all these symptoms, I had to sell my home of 25 years, sell may car, sell may possessions and go to work full time. I accepted gifts of money from family and friends to pay for heat, electricity, gasoline and food.

I was the recipient of so many kindnesses and saw so much goodness in people. Goodness in people is something that you, Mr. Madoff, have been blind to your whole life, and that goodness is better than all the yachts and all the French homes in all the world put together.

Sadly, Mr. Madoff not only defrauded thousands of investors, he mastered the art of manipulating our government.

FINRA and the Securities & Exchange Commission became his tools. They were willing to relax all regulations that would have uncovered his fraud. The justification for relaxing the regulations was to ease the burden on Wall Street firms, the very firm that bankrupted the world economy.

[Ebel was asked to keep her comments to Madoff.]

Mr. Madoff, I have read you will be making a statement about your guilt and shame. I do not believe you. Judge Chin, Mr. Madoff should stay in jail until every person who enabled him to cause such a massive devastation is brought to justice. He should stay in jail until the families of every one of his victims are able to restore their financial stability. That could easily take 150 years. Thank you.

Tom FitzMaurice:

Thank you, Judge Chin, for allowing us to be heard in your courtroom today. My wife and I here are today representing the

thousands of Madoff victims. We have all suffered extensively as a result of his actions.

It has been well chronicled that Madoff did not limit his treachery to a few. He stole from the rich, he stole from the poor and he stole from the in-between. He had no boundaries. He stole from individuals as well as charitable organizations of all types and denominations.

My wife and I are not millionaires. He has taken our entire life savings. We have not been overlooked just as many

of his other victims. We have worked hard, long and hard for all of our lives to provide for our family and to be in a

position to retire someday. I am now forced to work three jobs. My wife is working a full-time job only to make ends

meet, to allow us to pay our mortgage and put food on the

table.

We are 63 years old. It will be no retirement for us

in the next two or three years. There will be no trips to

California to visit our one-year-old grandson. There will be

no vacations of any type. Again we are too old to recoup the

monies that he has taken from us. We can only work as long as

our health will hold up and then we will have to sell our home

and hope to survive on social security alone.

Madoff has shown no remorse. Please do not confuse his prepared statement as remorse. His crime was premeditated and calculated. He was attempting to scam investors only days

before his arrest. If he had the opportunity, he would still be stealing from innocent investors. He has not truly

cooperated with the authorities to recover the money that

rightfully belongs to his investors, whom we are now known as victims.

He cheated his victims out of their money so that he and his wife Ruth and their two sons could live a life of luxury beyond belief. This life is normally reserved for royalty, not for common thieves.

Your Honor, we implore you to give him the maximum sentence at a maximum prison for this evil lowlife. This would be true justice. Minimum security prison would only allow Madoff too many freedoms that he does not deserve. He would be leading a life better than a lot of his victims. That is not true justice. His was a violent crime without the use of a tangible weapon.

His attorney will argue for a lenient sentence of up to twelve years. That is both insulting and another example of Madoff’s arrogance. The scope of the devastation he has wreaked is unparalleled. It is impossible to compare his crime to any past criminal act. The pain he has inflicted will continue for many years. My life will never be the same. I am financially ruined and will worry every day about how I will take care of my wife.

Where will we be able to live? How will we pay our bills? How will we get medical insurance? All of his victims worldwide will be waiting to see that true justice is served. True justice is a maximum sentence in a maximum security prison. I have a quotation from my wife, since only one of us could speak. She wants to say:

“I cry every day when I see the look of pain and despair in my husband’s eyes. I cry for the life we once had before that monster took it away. Our two sons and daughter-in-law have rallied with constant love and support.

You, on the other hand, Mr. Madoff, have two sons that despise you. Your wife, rightfully so, has been vilified and shunned

by her friends in the community. You have left your children a

legacy of shame. I have a marriage made in heaven. You have a marriage made in hell, and that is where you, Mr. Madoff, are going to return. May God spare you no mercy.”

Carla Hirschhorn:

Good morning and thank you, your Honor, for allowing me to address you.

My husband and I write to you to explain the devastation caused by Bernard L. Madoff to our lives. Since 1992 we were invested with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities. We have never been rich people. We have worked throughout all our adult lives. Over the years my husband has worked hard to learn a trade as a glazer which afforded him the opportunity to start a small business. I have been a physical therapist and worked through to the day I was graduated from college in 1980. We have both diligently saved our hard-earned money to invest with Bernard Madoff over the years. We used our money to raise our children, purchase our home and put savings in Bernard Madoff Securities.

On December 11th, 2008, our world crumbled beneath us as news of the Bernard Madoff ponzi scheme became public. This turn of events has been devastating to our family. We lost our entire life savings. This money was being used to provide our children with a college education they have worked so hard to deserve and to provide us with savings for a secure retirement.

Since December 11th, 2008 life has been a living hell. It feels like a nightmare that we can’t wake from. I am so thankful that my father died two years ago and was spared from having to live in his terminal condition without the money to provide him 24/7 health care which allowed him to die with indignity.

My father died and left my mother believing she would be able to live a safe and secure life with the money in her Bernard Madoff accounts. Now all she has to live on is a sparce social security check and a small pension which will last less than one year. She may not have enough money to maintain her home and living expenses.

It is our hope and in our prayers she does not become ill and require extraordinary means to sustain her. Our daughter who sits in this courtroom today to witness this horrific event is a junior at college and has worked two jobs since our Madoff accounts were stolen while going to school full time. The stress and worry about her family’s financial situation and health of her parents has been devastating to her.

We have no idea how we will continue to pay for college without it being a terrible financial burden and worry on all of us. Immediately after hearing the news of the Ponzi scheme, we filed papers for financial aid to sustain our daughter through college. We were informed we were not eligible for any grant money, that our only hope would be to take out loans. However, in this financial environment, without SIPIC insurance and with concern about claw-back litigation, we can’t possibly take loans out to send our daughter to college. The turmoil caused by our financial devastation has caused us serious physical and emotional problems from which we need medical treatment.

Your Honor, please understand that we, the investors, have been punished by Madoff’s crime. We were devastated by the SEC’s failure to uncover Madoff’s fraud and its continued stamp of approval behind Madoff over the decades of his crime. We have been abandoned by our elected officials which refuse to require the SEC to find income. We have been betrayed by SIPIC, which in order to save money, has invented a new definition of net equity to deprive us of the $500,000 of insurance of which we were assured.

Please, your Honor, do not fail us. Please assure that Madoff is sentenced with the maximum possible time and he is required to serve his sentence in a maximum security prison. This is not a man who deserves a federal country club. Respectfully, Carla Hirschhorn.

Sharon Lissauer:

My name is Sharon Lissauer. Thank you, your Honor, for letting me speak. I am very emotional, so please bear with me if I break down into tears. As everyone knows, this nightmare has begun six and a half months ago and yet it seems like a lifetime.

I keep on thinking I am going to wake up from it. It keeps on getting worse. My life and my future have been ruined. I was always so careful with my money, but I entrusted everything I had to Mr. Madoff, my whole life savings from modeling and the inheritance of my mom. She just died last year, and as soon as I got the money, because I just miss her and I trusted Mr. Madoff so much, I gave it all to him, but now I don’t have my mom or the money.

I know I am not alone. I know he has ruined thousands of people’s lives. In the March hearing he said that he was truly sorry, which I don’t really believe, but even if it is a little bit true, then I am not asking him, I am begging him, if he has any money from the offshore accounts or his family has any money obtained from this horrible fraud, that they disgorge it and give it back to the victims so they can have a little bit of their lives back.

With respect to his sentencing, I used to think that it didn’t matter if he got 150 years, what would that do for the victims? It wouldn’t get their money back. But now upon reflection, I think he should spend his whole life in jail because what he has done is just despicable. He has ruined so many people’s lives. He killed my spirit and shattered my dreams. He destroyed my trust in people. He destroyed my life, and I have no other assets.

I make very little money from modeling and he left me in a very difficult position to pay my bills and support myself. For the first time in my life I am very, very frightened of my future.

Burt Ross:

Your Honor, my name is Burt Ross and my wife Joan and I lost $5 million because of the criminal acts of Bernard Madoff. Not only have I lost the inheritance of my father who worked his entire life, not only have I lost the inheritance of my father who worked for his entire life so that his children and his children’s children can leave a better life, I have lost our retirement accounts and funds in trust for our children.

The fact is though we are one of the fortunate ones because we still have a roof over our heads, food on our table, unlike so many others who have been forced to sell their homes, who have been forced to sell their homes and pick up the pieces of their lives.

Years ago I attended a Friends secondary school where we thought that in each person there was an inner light, that of God and everyone. For the life of me, as far as I have searched, I cannot find that inner light in Bernard Madoff.

What can we possibly say about Madoff, that he was a philanthropist, when the money he gave to charities he stole from the very same charities he ultimately devastated; that he was a good family man when he leaves his grandchildren a name that mortifies them, a name which will live in infamy; that he is genuinely remorseful for his conduct when the statement he read in this very court was totally without emotion, when even

after confessing he fought to keep assets away from those he hurt, when we all know his only regret was getting caught.

Can we say Madoff was a righteous Jew who served on the boards of Jewish institutions when he sank so low, when he sank so low as to steal from Elie Weisel, as if Weisel hasn’t already suffered enough in his lifetime. A righteous Jew, when in reality nobody has done more to reinforce the ugly stereotype that all we care about is money the fact is there are no people on this earth more charitable? But we will survive. We have survived worse than Madoff.

What Bernard L. Madoff did far transcends the loss of money. It involves his betrayal of the virtues people hold dearest — love, friendship, trust — and all so he can eat at the finest restaurants, stay at the most luxurious resorts, and travel on yachts and private jets. He has truly earned his reputation for being the most despised person to be in America today.

Several hundred years ago the Italian poet Dante in his “The Divine Comedy” recognized fraud as the worst of sins, the ultimate evil more than any other act contrary to God’s greatest gift to mankind — love. In fact, he placed the

perpetrators of fraud in the lowest depths of hell, even below those who had committed violent acts. And those who betrayed

their benefactors were the worst sinners of all, so in the three mouths of Satan struggle Judas for betraying Jesus Christ, and Brutus and Cassius for betraying Julius Caesar.

Please Allow me to take a liberty now by speaking for many of those victims who because of frailty, privacy, distance, or other reasons are unable to bear witness today.

We urge your Honor to commit Madoff to prison for the remainder

of his natural life, and when he leaves this earth virtually

unmourned, may Satan grow a forth mouth where Bernard L. Madoff deserves to spend the rest of eternity.

Michael Schwartz

My name is Michael Schwartz. I am 33 years old. It was my family’s trust fund that helped fund the money for Bernard Madoff’s organization. Since I was a teenager, I invested into what I thought was a forthright and legitimate investment firm. During this time I made sure I lived well within my means, nothing extravagant. I viewed my investment as a safety net in case I should hit hard times or perhaps face medical issues.

Unfortunately, several months ago, my job was regionalized, eliminated. I was handed a letter of recommendation and sent on my way. It didn’t hit me until I got home that the company that you ran had already taken my life savings. At 33, I was wiped out.

I am one of the lucky ones by far. I have my health. I am young, I have great friends, got a loving wife.

Unfortunately, the money you took from other members of my family wasn’t a minor setback. It was quite a bit more. Your Honor, part of the trust fund wasn’t set aside for a house in the Hamptons, a large yacht or box seat to the Mets. No, part

of that money was set aside to take care of my twin brother who

is mentally disabled, who at 33, he lives at home with my parents and will need care and supervision for the rest of his life.

In the final analysis, my family wants to remember that in addition to stealing from retirees, veterans, widows, Bernard Madoff stole from the disabled. Every time he cashed a check and paid for his family’s decadent lifestyle, he killed dreams.

My parents had a simple dream for my brother, a week at summer camp, someday being able to live in a good, a good group home. Thanks to Bernard Madoff’s greed, complete lack of ethics, that dream will be delayed.

At the end of the day my twin brother will be taken care of. My family is strong enough to weather this storm but, your Honor, I say this without any malice, Bernard Madoff should no longer be allowed back in society. I only hope that his prison sentence is long enough so that his jail cell becomes his coffin. Thank you.

Miriam Siegman:

I was born a few blocks from this courthouse. I still live here. On a cold winter’s day just before my 65th birthday, the man sitting in front of me announced to the world that he had stolen everything I had.

After that he refused to say another word to his victims. I am here today to bear witness for myself and others, silent victims.

The streets of my childhood felt safe. The streets I wander now feel threatening. The man sitting in this courtroom robbed me. In an instant his words and deeds beat me to near senselessness. He discarded me like road kill. Victims became the byproduct of his greed. We are what is left over, the

remnants of stunning indifference and that of politicians and bureaucrats.

Six months have passed. I manage on food stamps. At the end of the month I sometimes scavage in dumpsters. I cannot afford new eyeglasses. I long to go to a concert, but I never do. Sometimes my heartbeats erratically for lack of medication when I cannot pay for it.

I shine my shoes each night, afraid they will wear out. My laundry is done by hand in the kitchen sink. I have collected empty cans and dragged them to redemption centers. I do this.

People ask how are you? My answer always is I’m fine, but it is not always true. I have lived with fear. It strikes me at all hours. I calculate again and again how long I can hold out.

It is only a matter of time. I will be unable to meet my own basic needs, food, shelter, medicine. I feel grief at no longer being able to help support my beloved sister. I feel shame and humiliation asking for help. I also feel overwhelming sadness. I know that another human being did this to me and to all victims, but I don’t know why. What I do understand frightens me. The man who did this had deep contempt for his victims.

There are many victims including those we never hear from or see; union members, pipe-fitters, laborers, women who work in nursing homes, bricklayers, firemen, working people.

One victim shot himself. The inquest informs us he was a highly decorated former soldier who could not face the shame of his ruin, his last words on a humanitarian mission in Afghanistan. By self-admission, this thief among us knew his

victims were facing a kind of death at his hands, yet he continued to play with us as a cat would with a mouse.

What shall be the punishment for such a man? What sentence? Carry the burden we carry, feel his shame, humiliation and isolation as I do. Feel it each day wherever you are until life ends.

Face an acknowledge the murderous effects of your life’s work. I long for the truth that might become of a trial and hope justice had placed a higher premium on truth and expediency. Forgiveness for now, it will have to come from someone other than me.

Sheryl Weinstein:

I was introduced to Bernard Madoff 21 years ago at a business meeting. At the time I was the chief financial officer of Hadassah, a charitable women’s organization. I now view that day as perhaps the unluckiest day of my life because of the many events set into motion that would eventually have the most profound and devastating effect on me, my husband, my child, my parents, my in-laws and all those who depended upon us for their liveliness.

You have read and you appear from many of us, the old, the young, the healthy and infirm about the unimaginable extent of human tragedy and devastation.

According to a Time Magazine article, there are over 3 million individuals worldwide who have been directly or indirectly affected. They, the press and the media, speak of us as being greedy and rich. Most of us are just ordinary working people, worker bees, as I like to refer to us.

My husband and I are now both in our 60s and have been married for 37 years. We have saved for most of our lives by living beneath our means in order to provide for our retirement. This past Thursday at 2:00 o’clock my husband and I sold our home of 20 years. People are always asking how much did we lose? My reply is that when you lose everything, it really doesn’t matter because you have nothing left, and we have lost everything.

Many have told us we were lucky — I no longer know — to be able to sell in this depressed market although at a greatly reduced amount. We had to sell because four years ago we refinanced our mortgage and gave the excess cash to Bernie Madoff. There was very little left over after all was said and done at the closing.

It is difficult to describe how it feels due to circumstances outside of your control to be virtually forced out of your home, to leave unwillingly. Last Tuesday I walked out following the movers with a thought I would be back before the closing, but knowing in the back of my mind that I wouldn’t.

My husband was the last to be in our home. He shared with me his hesitation of not wanting to leave, of wanting to remain, but realizing that staying was no longer an option. We chose not to go to the closing because it would have been too difficult and painful for either of us to be there. For months

after December 11th I would wake in the dark hours of the night and early morning and to my horror realize that there were no calming, soothing words I could say to myself because it wasn’t a dream.

The monster who visited me was true, a reality. Those same thoughts would occur to me upon waking in the morning and during the day and a deep, heavy depression would surround me and not lift.

This went one for many months. I went on after bad dreams, virtually not unable to eat. The sight of food was making me feel sick, unable to escape the reality of my personal devastation. At times I could not even bear to be alone. I would ask my friends to either stay with me at the office even if there was very little work to do. It would prompt me to pick up the phone to call my husband to be reassured I was not alone.

This continued until March 12th when Madoff entered his plea of guilty. I began to speak out to the media, and the helpless and hopeless feelings began to retreat and I began to feel empowered. It came together for me while being interviewed by Katie Couric. She asked me wasn’t I embarrassed being a CPA losing all my money? At that moment I realized and responded no, I am not embarrassed because I did not lose my money. My money was stolen from me.

Ms. Couric said to me you sound angry, and I said yes, you’re right. When someone steals from you, you get angry. That was the beginning of my healing process.

I felt it was important for somebody who as personally acquainted with Madoff to speak. My family and I are not anonymous people to him. He knows my husband’s name is Rob and

my son’s name is Eric. In fact, Eric worked for him one summer while in college many years ago. Eric would continue to call him over the years to ask for his advice and input. Eric entrusted him wth his money that he worked and saved. A few months before all this happened Eric had spoken to him and thanked him for doing such a good job.

I would now like to have the opportunity to share with you my personal feelings about Madoff and to speak to his sentencing.

I remember when my son was perhaps a few weeks old and I would watch him as he slept and he would whimper, not a cry of hunger, but a whimper. Even at a few weeks’ old there was something in his subconscious that could frighten him. It amazed me such a young child, an infant can have nightmares.

All of us from our earliest ages remember those times when the terror, the monsters and goblins would come visit us in those dark hours. Eventually we would be so frightened that we would awake sometimes calling out to our parents because of the fear.

It was calming to have our parents remind us it was only a dream. As we got older, we could wake ourselves and self-assure ourselves it was only a dream. That terror, that monster, that horror, that beast has a name to me, and it is Bernard L. Madoff.

I will now attempt to explain to you the nature of this beast who I called Madoff. He walks among us. He dresses like us. He drives and eats and drinks and speaks. Under the facade there is truly a beast. He is a beast that has stolen for his own needs the livelihoods, savings, lives, hopes and dreams and futures of others in total disregard. He has fed upon us to satisfy his own needs. No matter how much he takes and from whom he takes, he is never satisfied. He is an equal opportunity destroyer.

I felt it important for you to know in appearance, he would be just like everybody else and it is for this reason I am asking your Honor to keep him in a cage behind bars because he has lost the privilege of walking and being among us mortal human beings. He should not be given the opportunity to walk into our society again.

I would like to suggest that while any man, woman or child that has been affected by his heinous crime still walks this earth, Madoff the beast should not be free to walk among them. You should protect society from the likes of him. I have reread Madoff’s March 12th statement to you. Certain quotes jumped out at me. His continuing self-serving references, and I quote, that his proprietary trading in the market making business managed by his brother and two sons was legitimate, profitable and successful in all respects, or that he felt, “compelled to satisfy my clients’ expectations at any cost.”

It sounds as if he is laying the blame on his clients’ expectations and never admitting the truth he was stealing from these clients and the lives he ruined. If he was attempting to protect his family, he should not be given that opportunity because we, the victims, did not have the same opportunity to protect our families. Madoff the beast has stolen our ability to protect our loved ones away from us. He should have no opportunity to protect his family.

We, the victims, are greatly disappointed by those agencies that were set up to protect us. SIPIC has now redefined what we are entitled to. The IRS approved their office request to be a custodian of our IRAs and pension funds and the SEC appears to have looked the other way on numerous occasions. This is a human tragedy of historic proportions we ask — no, we implore — that those whose agencies may have failed us in the past through acts of omissions, step up to the plate, fulfill their responsibilities. I thank your Honor for your indulgence and I feel comfortable you will make sure justice is served. Thank you.