8,000 Pleas for Help

Another day, another frenzy of Madoff-related news.

Irving Picard, the trustee in charge of liquidating Bernard Madoff's firm, sent forms to 8,000 investors who may have been customers at some point during the past twelve months. Working with the Securities Investor Protection Corp., Picard provided detailed instructions for the investors to recover losses from the accounts held with Madoff's firm. They also published full-page advertisements in 7 newspapers with the information, including two papers in Israel. Many of Madoff's customers were non-profits and individuals from Jewish communities. The S.I.P.C. pays out a maximum of $500,000 to defrauded investors.

Meanwhile, the man himself took a trip downtown today for a court appearance after U.S. prosecutors asked that his house arrest be revoked and that he be sent to jail immediately. Assistant U.S. attorney Marc Litt alleged that Madoff transferred $1 million of assets despite his court order to freeze assets. The items included valuable jewelry that Madoff or his wife allegedly tried to hand over to third parties.

Madoff was able to return to his penthouse, however, after the judge delayed a ruling on the request.

Coincidentally, Madoff's time outside today was almost precisely the same time that legislators on the House Financial Services Committee grilled investors and regulators on their involvement in the Madoff scandal.

The inspector general of the Securities and Exchange Commission testified that he plans to broaden his investigation into how the agency failed to uncover the fraud. David Kotz also called for regulatory overhaul in light of the oversight failure.

Harry Markopolos, the investor who repeatedly peppered the S.E.C. with his suspicions over Madoff's operations over many years, was scheduled to testify but he called in sick.

by Megan Barnett