Ezra Merkin

J. Ezra Merkin is accused of pouring $2.4 billion in client money into Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme without investors’ permission. Cuomo’s complaint says Merkin paid himself $470 million in fees.Last December, after Madoff’s fraud was exposed, Tufts University reported its $20 million loss.The university made the investment in 2005 after its investment office recommended one of Merkin’s three hedge funds, university spokeswoman Kim Thurler said.The school has since determined that its investment office “acted properly and completed its normal due diligence procedures,” before recommending the Merkin fund, Thurler wrote in an email.At this point, Tufts isn’t sure if it will sue Merkin, but another ... Read Full Story

A hedge fund manager being sued over his role the Bernard Madoff scandal is selling off $310 million worth of art. Financier J. Ezra Merkin ran a fund that invested heavily with Madoff, and lost everything when the fraud fell apart. His clients say he misled them about what he did with their money. Merkin has denied any wrongdoing, but has agreed to sell his collection of paintings by the abstract expressionist Mark Rothko and sculptures by Alberto Giacometti. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who is also suing Merkin, says an anonymous buyer is acquiring the art trove. The money will be held ... Read Full Story

As the investigation into the Madoff scheme deepens, other prominent names are coming to the forefront. I say that it's time for all these fat cats to pay for what they've done. I celebrate each and every indictment that comed from this case, and hopefully this will make people think twice about pulling these types of shenanigans on people... But it probably won't; the lure of all that money is too much for most to resist: "New York Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo today charged money manager J. Ezra Merkin with civil fraud in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme, alleging that Merkin funneled more than ... Read Full Story

J. Ezra Merkin is very sued. Irving Picard, the bankruptcy trustee responsible for liquidating Bernie Madoff’s investment firm, dropped one of twelve claims against J. Ezra Merkin, the man who raked in a large chunk of Madoff’s fake profits. The total value of the suit hasn’t changed from $564.6 million, but $279 million of that will have to come from a different place — Merkin’s Ascot, which lost all of its $1.7 billion in the scheme, instead of Ariel and Gabriel funds, which pulled their money out while the going was good. [ Bloomberg ] Read more posts by Zeke Turner Filed Under: made-off ... Read Full Story

A former employee of hedge fund manager J. Ezra Merkin claims Merkin was warned about Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff (MAY'-dawf) years before losing tens of millions of dollars of investors' money in Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Richard Lowe on Friday unsealed documents filed by New York University, which is suing Merkin and his fund after it lost $24 million of the school's endowment. Former financial analyst Victor Teicher (TY'-sher) claims in a deposition that he warned Merkin in the early 1990s that Madoff's consistently high profits weren't possible year after year. Merkin's lawyer has said his client was fooled ... Read Full Story