Update - 01/09/2009

Bloomberg reports on January 8, 2009, that investigators searching the office desk of Bernard Madoff after his arrest found about 100 signed checks, totaling about $173 million, ready to be sent to family, friends, and employees, prosecutors said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Litt in Manhattan made the disclose in a letter submitted today to U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis, as part of a renewed request for the judge to jail Madoff prior to his trial. Prosecutors have previously disclosed that Madoff, before his Dec. 11 arrest, had said he wanted to transfer $200 million to $300 million of his investors money to selected family, friends, and employees.


According to a press release a law firm is currently investigating on behalf investor in Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities following the filing of charges Thursday by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission regarding the alleged stunning fraud of epic proportions purported to have been committed over a series of several years and by the investment fund and its eponymous founder


According to the press release the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has Madoff and his firm charged of having committed a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme, perpetrated upon advisory clients of his firm, and have frozen Madoffs assets, including those of the fund. The SEC said Madoff had indicated to two of his senior employees on Wednesday that he had been paying returns to certain investors out of the principal received from other, different investors for years. The estimated losses from the fraud are reportedly at least $50.0 billion. Bernard Madoff, a former chairman of the NASDAQ Stock Market and founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, was arrested and arraigned late Thursday, and was released after posting a $10.0 million bond secured by his Manhattan apartment. According to the press release Madoffs actions are especially shocking given the fact that Madoffs corporate website boasts of his personal interest in maintaining the unblemished record of value, fair-dealing, and high ethical standards that has always been the firms hallmark and the law firm assumes that the two unnamed senior employees in the SEC complaint are Bernard Madoffs sons, Andrew Madoff, director of trading, and Mark Madoff, the firms senior managing director and chief compliance officer.