Madoff Help News & Assistance

“OK” you’re saying. “Madoff is going to jail. How does that help me?”

Unless you get some kind of bizarre satisfaction that penthouse living for several months followed by less-than-gruesome jail-time is sufficient punishment for maiming the lives of thousands of unsuspecting victims, you’re not jumping for joy. I’m sure not.

“Is justice being served?” the media asks. I say “No, justice is not served until justice is done.” And justice cannot be done until a broad effort is made to restore to normal the lives of so many devastated by this, history’s greatest swindle.

So what is justice? First, it’s recognizing that Madoff had an important accomplice – not simply his wife or family members – but the regulatory entities that year after year created for Madoff the umbrella of security by signing off on the validity of his organization and his investment statements. Yes, friends, whether Ruth Madoff was an accomplice or not we can only surmise. We do know that the US government – through the Securities and Exchange Commission and NASD and FINRA– enabled, unwittingly this fraud to turn into the monster it is. Frankly, without the US government’s unintended duplicity, we wouldn’t be in this boat.

Justice means understanding the true consequences of injury. Clearly it means recognizing the ten to fifteen thousand people impacted. But it goes way beyond that: it’s recognizing that when we cannot accept as valid a credible investment statement from a regulated, audited entity, our trust in investment statements from any similarly regulated entity – whether it’s from Merrill Lynch, UBS, JP Morgan, or Fidelity – is called into question. And this calls into question our trust of our very financial system, already bruised and battered.

So justice means restoring confidence. And for this it means making restitution. It means finding ways of making whole the charities and foundations, the bricklayers and office workers, the elderly and college savings funds that have been decimated. It means doing the right thing.

In order for this to happen, it means most of all for Congress to take the torch, jettison the talk of “bailout fatigue” and do right. Justice means making lenient the tax code to allow victims to get back taxes paid on assets stolen from them. Justice means modifying the ERISA code so that pension plans and IRAs can be partially restored. Justice means modifying the Securities Investor Protection Act so that victims can have more than the equivalent of $91,000 in today’s dollars returned to them via SIPC. Justice means finding ways for victims who invested in “feeder funds” to be entitled to their own SIPC compensation. And justice means that Congress and the states should do all in their power to prevent adding insult to injury by preventing the clawback of funds that have been used by middle class investors over the years to pay taxes and utility bills.

So we need to let Congress and State representative hear loud and clear that we call on them for true justice. To fix and make right what was broken. To help restore faith in our financial system for all Americans. Putting Bernard Madoff in jail does little. Let your representatives know what really needs to be done (see sample letters here).
Share your letters with others here. Join a victims support group (see support groups here) and enjoy strength in numbers. Most importantly, make your voice heard.

Let’s join together to insure that true justice is done.

Ron Stein, CFP