No evidence found of Madoff’s trading

Regulatory officials said they have found no evidence accused New York trader Bernard Madoff made any brokerage trades at all.

There was no evidence of the Madoff broker-dealer executing trades for the (Madoff) investment adviser, Herb Perone, spokesman the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said, The Boston Globe reported Thursday.

If Madoff made no trades, he either arranged for trades through a third party or — in an extremely unorthodox strategy — he was not placing trades, the newspaper said.

Madoff was arrested in December, accused of running $50 billion Ponzi scheme. In a Ponzi scheme, initial investors are paid with investments by later investors rather than the investments themselves.

One of Madoff’s attorneys, Daniel Horwitz, refused to comment on the trading issue.

The finding also may mean that statements sent to the Madoff’s customers were made up, the Globe said.

One statement uncovered by the Globe included stock purchases at Wal-Mart, IBM and Intel. It also shows the purchase and sale of shares of Fidelity Spartan’s U.S. Treasury Money Market fund, although Fidelity denies Madoff dealt with the company.

We are not aware of any investments by Madoff in our funds on behalf of his clients, Fidelity spokeswoman Anne Crowley said.