Personal Stories - Tell your Story Here

This section is intended to provide victims of the Madoff scandal with a place to share their experiences and find helpful information, and to aide those of us that who are struggling to come to grips with the realities that we now face as a result of the Madoff scam. Please share your story and comments with the community. Sign only with your initials or first name and state.

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6 comments to Personal Stories - Tell your Story Here

  • Stanley Mirsky
    November 14th, 2009 at 7:48 pm

    I lost the entire contents of the Keogh Plan (retirement fund) I had worked over 40 years to build in 2 months by investing 2 million dollars with Bernard Madoff. Pretty pathetic and creating a severe hardship on my family. Any idea that anything besides net in and net out makes no sense when it comes to distribution, to say nothing of the SEC’s pure negligence and unwillingness to pay attention to the severe red flags that were more than obvious. SM

  • Bob S.
    May 8th, 2009 at 6:44 pm

    Has anyone else lost a good deal via the Sterling Stamos Offshore Levered Fund? They eventually concentrated on 5 managers … one of which was the Merkin run Gabriel Fund … and lost all via that investment in Madoff … they havent come clean in any kind of a public way about the magnitude of the losses … their management fees made over the years … or any legal action they are taking against Merkin, Madoff, Gabriel, auditors, etc????

  • Richard Friedman
    April 4th, 2009 at 8:33 am

    I made the following comments after reading some criticism of Helen Chaitman’s letter to Mary Schapiro regarding SIPC. I also want to add that I am very proud of the twelve year old who wrote such a mature letter.

    “For some people, not Madoff investors, the concept of “net equity” and that of the reasonable expectations that legitimate securities were purchased (which they weren’t) as opposed to fictitious securities being purchased (which they weren’t),is not an easy one to understand. Nor is the entire New Times Securities case. I have been making it my own policy that when I read an article, whether it be on paper, or on line, and they get it right, to thank them. Some have said that the media is not our friend. At this point, we can use all the friends we can get. On the other side, where I see an article that is not friendly to us, but it appears that the author just does not understand the concepts involved, I will write an informative letter to that person. If a writer writes a story that just spews hatred towards us, its usually a waste of time to respond, because they have more “fire power” than I have so I see no point in engaging in a battle that I know I can’t win (though I do have mixed feelings about that).

    No matter what your educational background is, no matter what you did (or do) for a living, there is something, no matter how small it may seem, that every single one of us can do to further our cause. It can be very easy to sit back and let the next person do the job, but this is not a job to us, it is a war. It is for our very survival. It is a war to get back as much of our money as we can, and to that end, every single one of us must participate. If you can do something, don’t look to the next person to do it, just do it yourself.

    Many of us just do what we think is right without looking for credit for our good deeds. You can be that way, or you can tell the rest of us what you did, and I will personally thank each and every one of you if that makes you feel better. Everyone can use an appreciative pat on the back. Just do something. In numbers we have strength. Let’s be strong!

    Richard, NY

  • Debra Schwartz
    March 18th, 2009 at 6:39 am

    Is anyone aware of a lawsit against Family Management?

  • G.C.
    March 2nd, 2009 at 8:14 am

    Personal Narrative: The Ponzi Scheme of Bernard Madoff.

    In my life so far – I’m only twelve — many interesting events have taken place. The incident I’m writing about happened several weeks ago. A recent memory now, soon it will be longer and longer past this terrible event and it will still stay in my heart as long as I live. When I look back on this event later in life when hopefully I’m a successful man, it will make me think, “That was what made me work harder”. I call the event the Ponzi Scheme of Bernard Madoff. An investment, an addition, and another addition to the investment — that was all it was and the money was suddenly gone. My family has been involved in this fund since it started and now that this awful crime has been revealed we’ve lost a fortune of our money and a long suspension of my parents’ retirements has been caused. Now, the road in the future will be hard but in my mind, it will make me a better person.

    I opened the door to my house to see my mom with a sad, grim face on. “Something’s wrong”, I thought. My dad was on the phone talking about things I couldn’t believe. Things like, “This changes everything” and, “We’ll just have to work a hell of a lot harder.” I thought of the up-coming vacation in Florida and said, “What on Earth is going on?” My mom turned and said she wasn’t quite sure of the details but Bernard Madoff had been arrested and stolen many peoples’ money, including my whole family’s.

    That night, I had a school concert and I didn’t play well as all I could think about was, “What should I do to help my family?” My grandma, who was very invested in Madoff, came to the performance and we didn’t tell her about the disaster because my Dad, Mom, Aunt, and Uncle had agreed not to tell her for 2 days. I tried to stay happy. It was hard, though. I went home, got into bed and had one heck of a fitful night sleep.

    The next morning, we all woke up to an urgent phone call. We had just learned about everything going on with the crime. Unfortunately, so did my grandma. Bernard Madoff had committed a 50 billion dollar Ponzi scheme. If I’m right, that means he created a fund for people to put their money in, told them the amount of money would grow, faked interest papers and used the money for himself. Once the authorities found out, he went straight to jail but then bailed himself out for 10 million dollars! More of our money! Now, many people have lost huge amounts of money. My grandma was crying on the phone with my mom. My uncle, retired, now must work again. My aunt has to hope for a huge raise now at the worst possible time. Everyone in my family except me, my inner family, my grandma, uncle and aunt have to sell their houses. Now, to get into college I feel I must get a scholarship. The last few weeks have sure gone by in a blur. I have heard many horrible stories. One man killed himself. Another, a brick layer, broke his back and now has no money left.

    Bernard Madoff has put this stress on people. He was so evil and self-centered (yet brilliant) that he let thousands of people down, and probably didn’t even care about them but only himself and the upcoming court trial! I hate his careless, criminal guts for this and hope he lives the rest of his life in total hell and agony! I hope this event helps me to become a more hard-working, nicer person and can use Bernard Madoff as a role model of what not to be: a criminal who ruins peoples’ lives. I hope many other people (involved and not involved in the fund) treat Bernard Madoff as a terrible man. I sure have a special reserve of hatred in my heart just for him.

    I sure hope everything ends up working out and this forces me to become one heck of a better person because that will be the only thing that will equal the stress my family and I have gone through because of one, single terrible criminal.

    G.C.

    New York

  • N.H. Sarasota, FL
    February 20th, 2009 at 6:17 am

    My Story….

    Like many of you, my family and I have been financially devastated, as we are victims of the largest securities fraud in history.

    My mother, who is almost 87, will have to sell her home, which she has lived in since 1958. And as you know, it is a horrible time to have to sell a house. My brother, who is disabled, lost his pension which he received in a lump sum and invested with Madoff in January of 2008; to make matters worse, he may be obligated to pay taxes on this money that has been stolen from him. I have lost my savings and my IRA, after working for years in a field in which I can no longer work. My father, who is deceased, left a charitable trust to the college of his choice for a chair in economics or for scholarships, and now that is gone too.

    We are taxpaying citizens who have looked to our government and the SEC and other organizations to regulate the financial industry and be the watchdog for all investors. Bernard Madoff Investment Securities were members of, and were investigated by the SEC and FINRA; so how could something of this magnitude go unnoticed for so long? Who was there to protect us, and how were honest investors to know that we were involved in some kind of fraudulent scheme, and receiving false statements? – false statements that looked to be completely authentic.

    Besides trying to get our lives in some order, we have been asking for help from our leaders in Congress and asking our government to aid us by intervening immediately on our behalf to prevail upon the IRS to make just and lenient rules as quickly as possible, pressure SIPC to make full payments and quickly, and eliminate any ”Clawback”, [which would make us double victims!] I feel strongly that it is indeed incumbent upon our government to work to provide any and all manner of bailout help that it could craft through legislation that would benefit victims of the Madoff scheme.

    To lose all of one’s money and income to a fraud by an entity that is supposed to be regulated by the United States Government is a Crime, besides being an incredible tragedy. The victims’ investments should be restored and made as whole as possible.

    This has been a terrible time for all of us. We have had to pull together as a family, still not knowing what the future holds. Our lives will never be the same. So this is our story. What’s yours?

    N.H..
    Sarasota, FL