Word: auctioneers
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Japanese hon maguro, or bluefin, inspired him to become a chef. For Honda, it's the only tuna there is. "Once you experience our natural maguro, you cannot go to a conveyor-belt sushi place anymore," he says. In 2001, when the yen was still rolling, Honda helped auction a Pacific bluefin at Tsukiji for about $220,000. It was one of the most expensive fish ever sold in Japan. "Maguro," Honda explains, "has a power to move people." (Watch TIME's video "Bluefin Tuna Catch...
Still, as much as issues like questionably advertised auctions and life-settlement deals may vex Madoff victims, going after such bottom feeders is low on their list of priorities. The auction ads "are a sad commentary," says Ronnie Sue Ambrosino, a Madoff victims' group leader in Arizona. "But we have much bigger fish...
Gavin Abadi acknowledged that the auction ads "may need tweaking." When told that bidders had complained that no Madoff estate items were on the block, as the ads seem to imply, and that bidders also didn't know whether any items were from Madoff victims, he said, "If that's a major concern, we should look into it and perhaps change some things," including disclosing to potential buyers which items are or aren't from Madoff victims. He said that he and his brother were "not looking to mislead or misrepresent. The victims we've been dealing with...
...auction ads used to reference a much more extensive site, Madoff-Help.com, a news and assistance site for Madoff victims, until its founder, Ron Stein, a certified financial planner in Huntington, N.Y., told Abadi to stop using it in his ads. "I guess he thought it gave them more credibility," says Stein. He says Abadi complied and apologized, but Stein nevertheless felt that "something just seemed unethical" about Southern Star's advertising...
...wouldn't be the first time Abadi has faced such questions. Last year the Florida Board of Auctioneers, which is part of the state's Department of Business and Professional Regulation, sanctioned Abadi twice for violating its rules regarding "false, deceptive, misleading or untruthful advertising." In 2007, Abadi's Illinois auction license was suspended indefinitely for failure to comply with the state's continuing-education requirements. He also had a run-in with Wisconsin regulators in 2002 for "failing to include required information in a published advertisement." Gavin Abadi would not discuss his brother's infractions but said that...