It's been nearly 10 years since most of us first heard the name, Bernie Madoff. Today, the notorious former investor is serving 150 years in prison for swindling clients out of tens of billions of dollars, including clients right here on the Suncoast. And even though a law firm has been paid nearly 40 million dollars to start doling out restitution to victims, most victims have not seen a dime. ABC 7's Ray Collins tells us what is being done.
You can bet sales of black trench coats took a hit the year Bernie Madoff, and his brother, went back and forth into federal court back in 2009. Orange is the new black for Madoff, serving the rest of his life behind bars at a federal prison near Raleigh, North Carolina. 5,000 former clients, now better described as victims, are trying to recoup at least some of their losses. Of the 5,000 victims, 20% are in Florida, some 62 here on the Suncoast.
A lot in Palm Beach and in Florida, number two in the country, but there's a lot in Sarasota area, too.
And that's why Congressman Vern Buchanan is pushing the Attorney General's office to step in and speed up distribution of some of four billion dollars in compensation to Madoff victims.
I've talked to many families that lost their net worth. Nothing's been distributed, or very little has been distributed. I think we need to find a way to move that process along, that's why we decided to work with the Attorney General's office, Sessions, to see if we can make this happen a lot quicker than it's been happening.
No response yet from there?
Not yet, but we're going to keep pushing it and make sure this happens.
Since our interview, Buchanan's office issued a press release saying the Attorney General has agreed to take a closer look at the delays, and local financial advisors say it's about time.
Look, folks need to be compensated to the fullest.
Gabriel Hament is an investment advisor to nonprofits, and it was clients like his who lost plenty of money.
Things like this happen once in a generation, something of this magnitude. We're talking about a hundred billion dollar Ponzi scheme, and the clawbacks that the law firm has to initiate, and the federal government has initiated, take years. We're talking about taking money away from charitable institutions and private individuals who thought they actually had realized these profits, that made off purportedly generated year after year, the annualized rate of return of eight, 10, 12%. That wasn't actually real.
While Buchanan tries to get compensation for victims, how can you at home be sure not to fall victim yourself and have your life savings robbed?
There are red flags, typically. If you take a look at Bernie Madoff, red flags existed all the way back to 2001.
Rob Lyons has been a financial planner, now, for nearly 40 years, and he says you need to make sure your money is being held by a third party bank, or brokerage firm.
It's a way to have checks and balances for you. Bernie Madoff did not have that. He not only managed the assets, but he held them.
He issued statements that were falsified. There was no third party custodial institution that was issuing statements that indeed confirmed that the returns were real, because the returns were fake.
How would these men describe the men in black?
Honestly, psychopath. He is a person who preys on other people. If he were not in the financial business, he would have preyed on people in other ways. It is the core of, unfortunately, what he was as a human being.
For some folks, greed has no boundaries.
We hear about con men and stuff, I just can't… It's so over the top, I can't even imagine the right word. He put together a Ponzi scheme had to be one of the largest in the history of the country. I have talked to individuals, I've talked to families that lost their life savings, many of them that are 65, 70 years old. It's just a tragedy. It's unbelievable. That's what I want to do, they've got 40 million, close to 40 million, let's figure a way to get those funds back to those families. And they'll only probably get back a fraction of what they lost.
In Sarasota, Ray Collins, ABC 7, your Suncoast news.
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