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HomeCAUTION: SIPC Impostor Luring Madoff Investors
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 9th, 2010 2:22 PM |
There is never a lack of scumbags in the world who prey upon those in distress.
As if those crippled by the Madoff scam have not already gone through hell and back, today we learn that an impostor to the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) has sprouted up targeting the investors victimized by the Madoff scam. The Wall Street Journal exposes this scum in writing, Copy-Cat Web Site Targeting Madoff Victims:
The Securities Investor Protection Corp., a securities industry group formed by Congress to help customers of failed brokerages, warned of an imposter Web site mimicking its own page to target victims of convicted swindler Bernard Madoff. (more…)
Madoff Investors Sue SIPC = Main St. Sues Wall St.
Posted by Larry Doyle on February 25th, 2010 11:35 AM |
I highlighted yesterday the fact that Madoff investors planned to sue SIPC. Further details on this suit are in a press release today. I view this lawsuit as nothing short of Main Street suing Wall Street.
Game on!!
MADOFF VICTIMS SUE SIPC DIRECTORS FOR PERPETRATING MASSIVE INVESTMENT INSURANCE FRAUD AGAINST AMERICAN INVESTORS
Suit charges SIPC fraudulently induced Madoff investors to believe they had up to $500,000 insurance coverage on securities and seeks compensatory and punitive damages
New York, NY – Three New Jersey Madoff investors have sued the directors and key officers of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) for what they allege is a massive investment insurance scam. (more…)
Madoff Investors Suing SIPC
Posted by Larry Doyle on February 24th, 2010 2:39 PM |
You can rest assured that the powers that be on Wall Street would just as soon have the Madoff saga over. The Madoff scam perpetrated on investors is an ugly reminder of the non-existent financial regulatory system during the better part of the last twenty years.
I also believe many in Washington also might like to see the Madoff saga quietly pass by. The failures of the SEC, FINRA, and SIPC in this greatest of scams are an ugly reminder of the Wall Street-Washington incest.
Well, while many of the incestuous partners would like to turn the page, there remains a lot of filth that still needs to be cleaned up and a lot of individuals and institutions that need to be held to account. (more…)
Kanjorski and Ackerman Undress the SEC and SIPC
Posted by Larry Doyle on December 15th, 2009 2:47 PM |
Having written about the massive regulatory failures on Wall Street for the better part of 2009, I am heartened by the House Finance Sub-Committee on Capital Markets hearing last week. The bell that tolled in this hearing deserves to ring loud, long, and clear across our great land. The regulatory and insurance failures on Wall Street deserve to be exposed far beyond Sense on Cents.
Rackets operate best in the dark. Well, let’s get that flashlight out again!
For those unaware, SIPC (the Securities Investor Protection Corporation) is an insurance fund in which member firms pay premiums to cover losses. From SIPC’s own website, we learn:
What SIPC Covers . . . What it Does Not
The cash and securities – such as stocks and bonds – held by a customer at a financially troubled brokerage firm are protected by SIPC.
Among the investments that are ineligible for SIPC protection are commodity futures contracts and currency, as well as investment contracts (such as limited partnerships) and fixed annuity contracts that are not registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under the Securities Act of 1933.
It is important to recognize that SIPC does not work the same way as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in terms of blanket protection of losses.
For this insurance coverage, SIPC charged its member firms an annual premium of $150 from 1996 until April 2009. That is no joke. Wall Street firms paid a token $150 a year to promote the idea that your investments were protected. While SIPC did have a $1 billion reserve fund, that was woefully insufficient to cover the losses incurred in the Madoff scam. Make no mistake, though, the SIPC annual premium of $150 should also be looked upon as a scam.
Think of it. Individuals pay far more for auto insurance than Goldman Sachs paid for investor insurance for over 12 years.
Are you getting increasingly pissed off? America should be extremely pissed off. The SIPC coverage has been a critical part of the Wall Street racket. (more…)
Press Release: Madoff Investors Accuse SIPC of Forcing Investors to Bail Out Wall Street
Posted by Larry Doyle on November 14th, 2009 2:07 PM |
Having interviewed noted attorney Helen Davis Chaitman on No Quarter Radio’s Sense on Cents with Larry Doyle on November 1st (a recording of that show can be heard here), I am compelled to share this press release. Investors need to fully understand and appreciate the critically important role that SIPC is supposed to fulfill and the fact that it has largely served at the behest of the industry much like its regulatory brethren at FINRA.
LD
MADOFF VICTIMS ACCUSE SIPC OF FORCING INVESTORS TO BAIL OUT WALL STREET
Group of Madoff victims files brief saying Securities Investment Protection Corp. was grossly under funded and is defaulting on its obligations to investors
New York, NY – Lawyers representing victims of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme filed papers in federal bankruptcy court Friday charging the Securities Investment Protection Commission (SIPC) with attempting to enrich Wall Street at the expense of customers of SEC-regulated broker/dealers. The brief argues that SIPC has withheld insurance money rightfully owed to Madoff investors by using an illegal definition of “net equity,” thereby depriving investors of the $500,000 in SIPC insurance which Wall Street is obligated to pay them.
“Just as American taxpayers were required to bail out Wall Street to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars after Wall Street recklessly brought the global economy to its knees, so to, Madoff’s destitute customers are being forced to bail out SIPC,” the brief reads. (more…)
Wall Street Scams Main Street: SIPC Investor Insurance for $150 Premium
Posted by Larry Doyle on November 2nd, 2009 12:25 PM |
Of all the insults, and all the fraud, and all the arrogance that has emanated from Wall Street over the last few years, there is no doubt that one of the greatest unknown travesties perpetrated on the American public is the insurance purchased by Wall Street firms to protect investor interests. How so?
For those listening to my interview with noted attorney Helen Davis Chaitman of Phillips Nizer last evening, you would have heard how the Securities Investor Protection Corporation funds itself. Who exactly is SIPC? From SIPC’s website we learn:
When a brokerage firm is closed due to bankruptcy or other financial difficulties and customer assets are missing, SIPC steps in as quickly as possible and, within certain limits, works to return customers’ cash, stock and other securities. Without SIPC, investors at financially troubled brokerage firms might lose their securities or money forever or wait for years while their assets are tied up in court.
Although not every investor is protected by SIPC, no fewer than 99 percent of persons who are eligible get their investments back from SIPC. From its creation by Congress in 1970 through December 2008, SIPC advanced $520 million in order to make possible the recovery of $160 billion in assets for an estimated 761,000 investors.
Thus we learn SIPC is an insurance fund launched in 1970 to protect investor interests. Sounds like a good idea.
Ms. Chaitman informed us that SIPC has reserves of $1.7 billion dollars. Is that good, bad, or indifferent? Well, for an industry with trillions in exposure, reserves of $1.7 billion seem rather light. (more…)
No Quarter Radio’s Sense on Cents with Larry Doyle Welcomes Helen Davis Chaitman, Sunday Evening at 8pm EST
Posted by Larry Doyle on October 31st, 2009 3:49 PM |
UPDATE: This episode of NQR’s Sense on Cents with Larry Doyle has concluded. You can listen to a recording of the episode in its entirety by clicking the play button on the audio player provided below. Once the audio begins, you can advance or rewind to any portion of the episode by clicking at any point along the play bar. We did have some technical difficulties connecting with our guest at around the 12 minute mark of the show. You can listen up to that point, and then advance it to the 24 minute mark when Helen Davis Chaitman joins the program.
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Who truly protects the average American investor? Our financial regulators are licking their wounds and playing catch up from seemingly 20-plus years of being asleep at the wheel. Banks and brokers are fighting tooth and nail against instituting a fiduciary code of conduct. Why do more and more investors not trust Wall Street? Where should one turn to navigate this corner of our economic landscape?
Welcome to No Quarter Radio’s Sense on Cents with Larry Doyle as I welcome Helen Davis Chaitman this Sunday evening at 8pm EST. Helen Davis Chaitman is a prominent attorney and partner in the New York based law firm Phillips Nizer LLP. Her career spans a vast part of our economic landscape.
Helen Davis Chaitman is a nationally recognized litigator with a diverse trial practice in the areas of lender liability, bankruptcy, bank fraud, RICO, professional malpractice, trusts and estates, and white collar defense. In 1995, Ms. Chaitman was named one of the nation’s top ten litigators by the National Law Journal for a jury verdict she obtained in an accountants’ malpractice case. Ms. Chaitman is the author of The Law of Lender Liability (Warren, Gorham & Lamont 1990) which is periodically updated and, since 1987, has authored the monthly newsletter, The Lender Liability Law Report. In early 2009, Ms. Chaitman spearheaded the firm’s pro bono representation of investors in Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. She has been an outspoken advocate for the victims of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme and for the government failures which caused massive losses to innocent investors. (more…)
