Word: feeder
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...There were a couple of factors at play with Madoff feeder funds. The first: the giddily enormous fees for the feeders...
...Having been a victim myself, through Madoff's West Coast feeder stalwart Chais, I know firsthand all about the high fees: 25% of income earned. Chais isn't talking, but that adds up to real money, enough to create, in his case, a foundation, the Chais Family Foundation, purportedly worth $175 million before Madoff's arrest on Dec. 11, 2008. The foundation is now kaput, as is Chais' financial sub-empire and as is, for that matter, my retirement. Chais has several lawsuits pending against him, including one by Eric Roth, the Hollywood screenwriter...
...Remember, we, the investors, didn't know we were in feeder funds. We were in funds, be it pension funds or partnerships, that pooled monies to be invested in a primary investment fund that was managed by people we trusted, smart people that really had an angle on beating the market. Or so we thought. Had we known our life savings were being shunted over to another party that actually did the real work, we may have invested elsewhere. After all, why would we pay such piggy fees to people that did nothing...
...This is the second factor, what you might call the other big lie - the one Galvin is getting at - of the Madoff Ponzi scheme: the feeders and Madoff conspiring together to keep basic due-diligence issues from clients, even as Madoff lied to his own feeder-fund generals, even as he lied to government regulators. Everyone turned a blind eye, everyone was in bed on this, including down the line the hapless investor who trusted all those years. See the top 10 scandals...
...course, we know now there was no actual work going on, either by Chais' New York people (i.e. Madoff), or by himself, except collecting money and distributing money, much like Madoff and Fairfield Greenwich, and all the other feeder funds. Chais' lawyer, Eugene Licker of Loeb & Loeb, was unavailable for comment. Ezra Merkin's lawyer, Andrew Levander of Dechert LLP, was also not available for comment...