Madoff Scam Soaks Jewish Charities

His Wall Street fraud will wipe out philanthropic groups
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 13, 2008 12:08 PM CST
Madoff Scam Soaks Jewish Charities
Bernard L. Madoff, chairman of Madoff Investment Securities is seen on his Manhattan trading floor in this photo taken Dec. 30, 1999, in New York.   (AP Photo/The New York Times)

Rich investors and hedge funds aren’t the only ones losing their shirts in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Madoff was a giant in the small world of Jewish philanthropy, running millions for a variety of charitable organizations, the Washington Post reports. Deborah Coltin, for example, woke up yesterday to discover that the $8 million family foundation she’d run for a decade—and which had invested its endowment with Madoff—had just gone poof.

Madoff’s own $19 million foundation also was wiped out, while a Long Island Jewish Health program lost $5 million, and a Texas-based foundation that gave to Jewish causes lost $6 million. “I laid off five people today,” said a shell-shocked Coltin, whose group dispensed about $1.5 million a year to Massachusetts Jewish groups. “Our foundation was the lifeblood of this community. It’s just very, very sad.” (More Bernard Madoff stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X