Madoff investors hoping for a bailout THE ASSOCIATED PRESS December 19, 2008 Securities Investor Protection Corp. officials say the books of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities Llc are in complete disarray and could take six months or more to piece together. But that may be too late for Ronnie Ambrosino, who was a millionaire until a week ago. She is among the long list of investors whose fortunes were said to be wiped out by Bernard Madoff's alleged $50-billion Ponzi scheme. Like them, with bills piling up and her bank account vanishing, she's left hoping for a bailout that might never come. She plans to sue Madoff, but that could take years to work through the courts and yield little in the end. Her best hope to recoup some of her money is from the SIPC, an industry-funded organization set up by the government to protect investors from fraud. But, here's the problem: SIPC does not have enough money to pay out all the claims that are sure to come from one of the biggest fraud cases ever to hit Wall Street. Securities attorneys say the organization has a reputation of being tough to squeeze money from, and each investor is only entitled to a maximum payout of $500,000 if a claim is approved. "It feels like I'm drowning and someone is saying, 'We're going to save you, but we have to build the boat first,'" said Ambrosino, 55, who had $1.6-million invested with Madoff. "We can't wait for SIPC to go through all the papers." The scope of what SIPC covers, however, can be limited. SIPC, for example, typically won't cover claims for cases involving stock manipulation or investments made into hedge funds. Since its inception in 1970, SIPC has paid out $508 million to reimburse some 625,000 investors who lost money. The Madoff case will be SIPC's biggest test, and experts are raising questions about whether the organization can handle the massive amount of claims that are expected. Some experts suggest the government might have to assist. "There's no doubt that hearings will be held on this, and some government aid is a very logical request," said Robert Schachter, an attorney with New York-based Zwerling, Schachter & Zwerling, which is representing several Madoff victims. "If we're bailing out Wall Street and the auto industry, maybe these individuals should be bailed out too." Madoff, who was arrested last week and charged with securities fraud, was removed from a United Kingdom list of "approved" financial services providers, along with his brother and two sons. The status of Madoff, 70, was changed to "inactive" on the Financial Services Authority's register two days ago, Bloomberg News reported. Meanwhile, Ambrosino, who retired early, has the furniture inside her motor home as her only assets now. http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzmado195970544dec19,0,6848924.story
So she invested 100% of her funds with him? What was she planning on living on? Was she writing checks from her Madoff account to pay her bills? She deserves what she gets.
that is why you have to be "qualified investor" to invest in hedge funds ... so if the hedge fund goes belly up you do not loose everything... if you are stupid enough to put everything you have in ONE hedge fund, then you deserve to loose it ..
Some big Jewish families have lost alot of money, you can bet they will get our tax dollars. Had this been an Irish firm with Irish investors you can bet they would get NO help at all.
Only the complete imbecile can seriously say that she deserved to lose her money . She was investing along Spielberg , Zuckermann, Yeshiva etc.. She was deceived and certainely didn't deserved this..
She is entilted to 500k thats it. If you lost 5 million you only get the max covered by SIPC thats 500k PERIOD. They better not make all these investors whole, thats bull shit.
how much money have you contributed to the catholic schools in new york which are in dire financial straits? you don't like jews. you don't like mozilla. you don't like IB. what else is on your list?
I donât dislike Jews. Mozilla Firefox has a lot of issues. Some website the text is unreadable. Then when you try and remove it itâs a royal pain. IB use to be a great broker got paid interest on free cash and the margins were the best. That has all changed. So am I not allowed to have a negative opinion on anything? I seems you have done some research on what I donât like, interesting.