Madoff Victims Statements: READ The Entire Document

141 pages of misery. Today, New York City prosecutors filed a collection of statements from victims of Bernie Madoff that will make your head spin.

Contained in the documents are tales of hard-earned life savings, lives ruined and, not surprisingly, a tremendous amount of anger towards Madoff and the U.S. government.

One victim wrote:

"We have nothing. Only living off social security. I told my father, 89, he could not die because we didn't have enough money to bury him. That is what we were reduced to after Madoff lived so well off of our money."

Other victims described relatively middle-class backgrounds that were far removed from Madoff's free-spending, lavish lifestyle:

"For 30 years, I worked as a Forrester for the city of Boulder Parks and Recreation Department. I retired a year ago thinking I had a nice next egg to live off before all this tragedy happened. ...Now I find that I don't have any money to send my daughter to college after planning and setting aside money so early on."

Another investor continued:

"Madoff victims have been portrayed in the media as wealthy and privileged individuals. Nothing could be further from the truth. Many mad victims are elderly individuals or retirees who were saving for the future and the misfortune to believe in a powerful Wall Street insider who was repeatedly investigated and given a clean bill of health by a government watch dog agency named the SEC."

Some of the responses are much more abrupt:

"I am 86, I have a broken knee, I have lung cancer and thanks to Madoff, I am now bankrupt."

READ the entire document:

Madoff Statements -

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Comments

[Ozzie234]

I have read a few pages of the victim statements. They have the victims' email addresses and home addresses therein. Surely these should have been whited out for publication? The victims are entitled to some privacy, I think.

[robinhood1]

Read about another scam pedaled to unsophisticated retail investors by "Wall St" in today's Wall Street Journal. Look for the headline that says "reverse convertibles". If you have to rely on a stock broker, financial planner, wealth adviser etc. for information, you probably have no business being in the stock or bond market at all. Even if you manage to stay away from the charlatans, hyperinflation may still wipe you out financially in the coming years, as the the US government keeps making financial commitments it can't possibly keep.

[ashabot]

Wow.

I realize that sounds horribly shallow but those letters knocked the wind out of me.

[angrymadliberal]

Your house is worth $125,000 but you paid $250,000 don"t worry with "Mark-To-Market" Neutered you can say whatever you want to about your home value and no one can refute you!
Now when you go in for a loan, simply declare the house is worth $300,000 and along with your clean "ON-THE-BOOKS Balance Sheet" with no visible other debts means you get money from the FED at 1% interest or maybe less!
Why can"t this world be true for ALL AMERICANS like it is for Wall Street?
We do not own Congress and they DO using ill-gotten FUNDS!
Are the Wall Street Banks really healthy? With "OFF-THE-BOOKS" accounting and "MARK-TO-MARKET" Neutered who knows what the truth is!

good articles for a slow news day: href=".http://www.bit.ly/12NCJR>Econ & Finance Articles Updated Daily

[davidwayneosedach]

Madoff offered an investment that was too good to be true. There is no excuse for not thoroughly checking out this type of investment before handing over your hard earned money. Well, it's gone!

[greihing]

Here's an idea. Sentence Bernie to Gitmo and allow the government to have Army/CIA personnel practice "enhanced interrogation techniques" on him. Sure, there's nothing he can tell us, but it will allow him to suffer painfully just like his victims.

[mightyhead]

I bet there's a lot he can tell us about greasing the wheels at the SEC...

[StoicRep]

I feel that Madoff's records need to be examined more carefully. I find it hard to believe this was not a case of insider trading, shared information among some top flight types, with some others in on the deal to make it look legitimate.

[StoicRep]

I believe records of of trade have been erased, to protect the greedy.

[poliguy70130]

Im sorry, but if you look at the addresses listed on the report filed by the trustee it is quite clear that most of Madoff's investors were a lot more than "middle class". Its a testament to the gaul of these investors that they refuse to accept any blame for their current situation. These are educated people who handed over large portions of their assets without understanding or even questioning Madoff's investment strategy. They just saw the possibility for large returns and all common sense went out the window. These people all say they "trusted" Madoff, but when it comes to giving someone all of your money more than a trusting face should be required.

[BannedNBoston]

Heres another Madoff style ripoff

350 BILLION TARP MONEY MISSING!
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/639.html

[glesslib]

And George W. Bush wanted you to be able to take your Social Security and invest it with the Madoffs of this world. He was an MBA and we all know how smart he was about finances. You, too, could end up broke had anyone actually taken up his plan.

[Ravyn]

Of yeah, that's right. GW and the Republicans wanted to privatize social security and invest it in the stock market. So even if you didn't get caught with a Madoff, imagine how much would have gotten lost during the financial meltdown last fall.

[KarateKid]

Good point. Shows you where the Republicans sleep, and it's not with the common man.

[Marian Wright]

Isn't our current social security system a giant ponzi scheme? I paid into social security for many years. What I am receiving now in retirement is from the people who are now paying into it. It wasn't supposed to be this way. The money that my generation paid into the system was supposed to go into investments from which our retirement payments would come. From what I understand, it was sometime in the 90s that these investments were stripped in order to balance Clinton's budget. I could be wrong about this, but I have read such things.

[fcsakes]

The intent of the SS system has ALWAYS been for the current workers to support the previous generation of retired workers. It was set up that way and has worked well. Many retirees would simply starve to death in the streets if it weren't for SS.

[glesslib]

You're only about 40 years late in that story. I was sitting under a hair dryer in 1961 reading U.S. News and World Report about how the government was borrowing from the Social Security Fund and, at that time, owed it billions. Sorry we can't blame that one on the Clintons. That's where your money has gone for generations. The government borrowed it to make the budgets appear more balanced. After 3 1/2 years of receiving your Social Security you will be in the black, receiving more money than you ever paid in. And when you factor in Medicare, it turns out to be a pretty sweet deal. Hopefully, if good jobs ever return to the United States, the next generation will have an opportunity to enjoy its benefits.

[Marian Wright]

Like many who have commented, I didn't have much sympathy for Madoff investors. But, after reading many of these gut-wrenching stories, I have drastically changed my viewpoint. My heart goes out to every person who has lost his or her life-savings. It is indeed a tragedy. It is wrong for Ruth Madoff to still live in luxury while many of Madoff's victims will soon not have any place in which to live. No sentence is too harsh for this sub-human being. The only comfort we can draw from this is that the name Madoff will go down in history as one of the most vile names known to man. What a legacy he has bestowed upon his family

[Ravyn]

Perfectly written, Marian Wright. I ditto all of the above and can only add that I hope enough money is clawed back to at least, at a minimum, reimburse the individual investors who lost their life savings and had up to $500,0000 invested the entire amount they lost, and to those individual investors who had $500,000+ invested that they'll all get back a minimum of $500,000.

[Ravyn]

I meant up to $500,000 would be reimbursed to those investors who had $500,000 or less invested with Madoff. Got an extra zero in there by mistake.

[AtTheMoon]

poor ruthie can't get her hair done at her favorite salon anymore!

[mattyd123]

http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&client=firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=6vi&ei=ovs2SqKfMtqntgfB9-nYDA&resnum=0&q=redemption+song&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=qfs2SveWLdnBtwexxvDWDA&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title#

[LiberalMommy]

To be honest...I have mixed feelings. I don't have much sympathy for those individuals who put all their money with Bernie and never questioned anything. There were stories of families doing it for generations. However, I know there are many people who lost money through investments with a broker who put a number of investors' money with Madoff. I also feel very sorry for those who lost through retirement funds and for the foundations who lost everything.

[altpower]

30 years as a Forrester?
Like, in the forrest?

[51tiggy]

Of the Gump clan

[emstrem]

I'm sorry, I've read about 20 or so of these letters of misery, and I can't help but to think of the 10 or so retired Jewish people I watched doing an interview around the time this all came to light in Florida. All of them were so pompous and full of themselves "when they were making money". Now that the bottom has fallen out they want handout? Come on.
I'm sorry, but I work at Ford Motor Company, as a Tool&Die Maker and I have seen many people invest ALL of their 401k money in Ford stock. They were happy as all get out when the stock was at $60 per share, and their portfolios were well over $500,000. Then the bottom fell out, and they were left with nothing but the choice to keep working, or retire to a life of not very promising luxuries. I knew 9 people personally that this happened to, company wide I'm sure the number is staggering. Sure the shares aren't worthless, but their 401k's are not enough to retire comfortably on either. That's the risk you take, that is why in investing 101 they tell you DO NOT put your eggs in one basket. I'm sure it happened to the GM workers and Chrysler people too, and don't forget about the good people at Enron.
If your getting 15% per year no matter what, and it doesn't give you pause, your a greedy fool, who deserves what you got.

[neighborhoodmole]

I remember when Enron employees lost their 401K because Enron stock was the only investment option. I watched Wallstreet Week after that news broke and was shocked to hear Louis Rukeyser tell his viewers that he had no sympathy because they broke the first rule of investing by not diversifying. So if your own company stock is the only 401K option, then you should not take the tax advantage by deferring your income in the 401K? In hindsight, he was right, those people would have been better off just putting the money in the bank and paying taxes on their full income. Since your employer is a big source of your finances, investing in your own company stock increases your risk exposure.

[runforfun54]

Well, does it make you feel better to know that Plumbers Unions, Carpenters Unions, Police and Fire Unions lost their retirement funds? And PLEASE do some research, no one received 15% per year "no matter what." Nobody's asking for a handout. Does it make you feel better to know that taxes were paid on this phantom income for years and years? And now, the government refuses to return those taxes? Does that make you feel better? Sad that you feel you need feel good about people's misfortune. Shameful, actually. What about your role as a union member in holding the auto industry hostage? Don't like it when th eshoe is on the other foot, do you.

[Jond0]

When I lost all my 401k money, I was told it was all my fault for being an unsophisticated investor. How does it feel to have the shoe on the other foot?

The phantom returns over the years were income on paper, so all the taxes paid were on that. even if the taxes hadn't been paid, the money would still be gone. How can they refund nothing?