There aren’t many people left for alleged mega-swindler Bernard Madoff to alienate – even his sons seem to want to let him rot in jail.
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Madoff was granted a one-day extension by a federal judge yesterday to provide the signatures of four “financially responsible persons” on his $10 million recognizance bond or he’ll have to go to jail while he awaits trial. Since he made the conditional bail Thursday, Madoff, 70, has gotten his wife, Ruth, and his brother, Peter, to sign the form. But his two sons, Andrew and Mark – who turned their dad into authorities last week – have yet to sign their names, according to court documents.
It seems unlikely that the once high-flying financial whiz can find any of his formerly wealthy friends to help, either – he’s accused of bilking them out of $50 billion in a giant Ponzi scheme.
Madoff’s lawyer, Ike Sorkin, declined comment. A lawyer for the sons did not return a call.
Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a stunning statement saying it was probing its own “deeply troubling,” “apparent multiple failures over at least a decade to thoroughly investigate . . . allegations” involving Madoff, who SEC staffers apparently took on his word when superficially delving into complaints.
A separate watchdog group poring over Madoff’s accounts said it has already found “two sets of books, in complete disarray,” related to his business.
Stephen Harbeck, president of the government-tied Securities Investor Protection Corp., said one book kept track of the losses that Madoff had sustained – while the other contained the far rosier financial picture that investors were shown.
“It’s obvious that the documents that [his] customers see don’t reflect the reality of what the brokerage firm had,” Harbeck said, adding that it would probably take investigators months to sort out the mess.
“We’ve only scratched the surface,” he said. “The records are utterly unreliable on this case.”
The SIPC, which was created by Congress, can give investors up to $500,000 if it is determined that their money was stolen. Harbeck said the agency is already sorting through claims. It is not known yet how many investors Madoff had. But since the SIPC only has $1.6 billion to dole out, its funds will likely be depleted quickly.
In all, it appears investors had at least $32 billion in funds overseen by Madoff, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.
Austria’s Bank Medici AG yesterday joined the list of duped international financial institutions, acknowledging it had parked $2.1 billion under Madoff’s control. In a separate SEC statement, the commission insisted one of its ex-assistant directors of compliance, Eric Swanson, who is married to Madoff’s niece, Shana, had no role in overseeing Madoff’s company.