Online Auctions Profit From Madoff Misfortunes
Posted on: Monday, 5 January 2009, 15:10 CST
After Bernard Madoff, founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, was arrested in December for allegedly heading up a $50 billion “Ponzi scheme”, many investors were left reeling. Now, some keen investors are profiting from his misfortunes by selling Madoff memorabilia on eBay.
Before Madoff was implicated in the scheme, he would tack his name on numerous keepsake items ranging from T-shirts to cigar humidors.
John Mitchell, of Fox Grove, Illinois, has made money from the misfortunes of firms like Lehman Brothers and Madoff. He said he buys Madoff labeled items and resells them on the online auction site.
He recently purchased a humidor from the manufacturer before it went en route to Madoff’s firm.
"It's sad, but it's still humorous," Mitchell said.
However, bidding for most Madoff related items won’t do much to regain the billions of dollars lost in the Ponzi scheme. Most items didn’t earn bids over $50 on eBay.
Eleven bidders were hoping to take home a fleece jacket, size L, on Sunday; the highest bidder had offered $147.59, according to Associated Press.
A Ponzi scheme is a swindle offering unusually high returns, with early investors paid off with money from later investors.
U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents raided Madoff’s New York apartment in mid December 2008.
"There is no innocent explanation," Madoff said in light of the charges, acknowledging that he had "paid investors with money that wasn't there."
U.S. prosecutors charged Madoff, 70, with a single count of securities fraud. They said he faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $5 million.
Also up for bid was a photocopy of a financial statement Madoff put out for a client, postmarked Dec. 3, a week before his Dec. 11 arrest. The seller said he may put up the actual document for bidding at some point.
---
On the Net:
Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
Related Articles
- Suit says $4B firm ran a Ponzi scheme
- Cuomo files suit against Madoff associate
- Stung philanthropist never doubted Madoff
- The Commodities Investor Provides a Practical Guide to Making Money From the Commodities Supercycle
- Milberg LLP Announces Its Investigation on Behalf of Investors Of Auction Rate Securities Offered By Major Broker-Dealers
- Demand for Farmland Grows: Investors Are Increasingly Sinking Their Money into Valley Ag Real Estate.
- Democrats to Push for Port Security Money
- U.S. Envoy Warns Iraq: No Unity, No Funding: Ambassador Threatens to Pull Security Money
- Plant Retirees Lobby for Pension Boost: Whitfield Is Urged To Help In Securing Money Transferred To Usec.
- Hitachi Data Systems' Scott Genereux to Present at Kaufman Brothers Second Annual West Coast Investor Conference -- Enterprise & Network Security
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds