Friday, Mar. 12, 2010

The Victims

As details began to unfold following Madoff's December 2008 arrest, it became clear that the victims of his massive scheme were quite far-flung. Large investment and asset-management corporations lost billions, but soon thereafter some of them came under investigation for being possible feeder funds. The media had a field day with stories about the celebrity victims, including actor Kevin Bacon, who would not disclose how much he and actress wife Kyra Sedgwick lost, Zsa Zsa Gabor who lost $10 million and even Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, whose charitable foundation was bilked more than $15 million. Gabor's lawyer blamed her client's more-than-$118,000 tax bill last year on the fallout from being ripped off by Madoff. All victims are waiting through the slow process of repayment that will require numerous investigations and accounting to establish where all the money came from and where it went.