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Most of these auctions are arranged by Southern Star Auctioneers, a Georgia company run by Dion Abadi, who has faced a number of official complaints and fines in recent years in multiple states. At one so-called Madoff auction held this fall in West Palm Beach, Fla. - a community hard hit by Madoff, who once owned houses and other property in nearby Palm Beach and who is now serving a 150-year prison sentence for his massive Ponzi scheme - many potential bidders exited fuming. "They all thought it was Madoff stuff, and it's not; it's from all over...
...messages, but his brother Gavin Abadi, an auctioneer also involved in the "Madoff" events, told TIME that Madoff victims do indeed provide merchandise for the auctions and that "we're getting inventory from them every single week." The problem, he said, is that most victims ask to remain anonymous. Southern Star put TIME in touch with one Madoff investor who said he lost millions in the Ponzi scheme and confirmed that he had given the Abadis some artwork to auction. But while that person said he was happy with the price the Abadis got him, he would not let TIME...
...Ilene Kent, a Madoff investor in New York City who now coordinates a victims' group called the Network for Investor Action and Protection, says Southern Star's advertising "seems deceptive at best" and makes her "feel like we're being used to lure people into auctions for this guy. If so, that really just adds insult to our injury." While Southern Star says it's using the ads as a way to get more bidders out to help Madoff victims, Kent fears Abadi is "just appealing to morbid public curiosity about how the mighty have fallen. But it wasn...
...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...
...campaign war chest. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, a 2008 contender for the White House, is a publishing veteran. His seventh and latest book, the decidedly nonpartisan A Simple Christmas: Twelve Stories That Celebrate the True Holiday Spirit (Sentinel), harks back to Huckabee's roots as a Southern Baptist minister. (Let it be noted, however, that a paperback edition of his fiercely political 2008 best seller, Do the Right Thing, is being published simultaneously.) TIME senior reporter Andrea Sachs talked to Huckabee about his electoral plans and the political scene. (See pictures of Devil's Night in Detroit...