Latest news with #BernardMadoff
Malay Mail
5 days ago
- Business
- Malay Mail
Bernie Madoff customers set to recoup US$498m, total payouts now top US$15b
NEW YORK, June 5 — Former customers of the late Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff will recoup US$498.3 million (RM2.1 billion) under a settlement on Wednesday with the liquidators of two Luxembourg funds, boosting their recovery to about US$15.26 billion. The Luxembourg Investment Fund and Luxembourg Investment Fund US Equity Plus had invested exclusively with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities for three years before Madoff's firm collapsed in December 2008. Irving Picard, the trustee liquidating Madoff's firm, said the US$498.3 million represents all transfers that the Luxembourg funds received from the firm. The funds will also give the Madoff firm's bankruptcy estate 15 per cent of proceeds from their lawsuit in Luxembourg against the Swiss bank UBS. They are expected to receive US$45.1 million on their own claim against the estate. The funds did not admit wrongdoing. Court approval is required, and a June 25 hearing has been scheduled. A lawyer for the Luxembourg funds did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Prior to Wednesday's settlement, Picard recovered US$14.76 billion for Madoff customers, whose losses he has estimated at US$17.5 billion. Payouts go to 2,656 customers whose claims he deemed valid. The payouts are separate from the US$4.3 billion awarded by the US government-created Madoff Victim Fund to 40,930 individuals, schools, charities and pension plans. These recipients included customers, and victims who lost money indirectly through Madoff, including in 'feeder funds.' Madoff concealed his fraud for decades before confessing to his sons one day after his firm's 2008 Christmas party. He pleaded guilty to 11 criminal charges and was sentenced to 150 years in prison, with the sentencing judge calling Madoff's crimes 'extraordinarily evil.' Madoff died in prison at age 82 in April 2021. — Reuters
Forbes
28-03-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Why Financial Firms' Ethics Gap Matters To Us All
Firms operating in the City of London and other financial centers have become much more regulated in ... More recent years. (Photo by) Many people — perhaps unfairly — struggle to think of financial services firms in the same context as ethics. Some of this cynicism is undoubtedly down to the fact that money is at the centre of what these firms do, but it is also likely that the fact that the industry is difficult for non-experts to understand adds to the sense that all is not always as it should be. It is little wonder, then, that — as more and more members of the public become directly involved with these institutions through saving for their old age as well as buying their homes — the industry has fought hard to clean up its image. And it is certainly true that employees on New York's Wall Street, in the City of London and elsewhere for the most part behave nothing like their predecessors did in a world that was much less regulated than is the case now. This is not to say that nothing can go wrong. Scandals such as Bernard Madoff's huge Ponzi scheme discovered earlier this century and the collapse of the energy firm Enron a few years earlier are proof enough of that. But, particularly since the financial crash of 2008 and the realization that the connectedness of the world's markets makes us all highly vulnerable, considerable efforts have been made to make the risks and returns of the industry less volatile. Some institutions have even lost their taste for the deal-making aspects to such an extent that they have closed parts of their operations. Only this week, it emerged that the international banking group HSBC had sacked London-based investment bankers on the day they expected to hear news of their annual bonuses as part of an effort to bring down costs and sharpen the bank's focus on its core businesses in Asia and the Middle East. Against this background, it is especially disappointing to see a new report from LRN Corporation, which advises organisations a round the world on ethics and compliance, finds 'significant gaps' in how ethics and compliance are implemented across different levels of leadership. The study based on data from the organisation's recently published 2025 Ethics and Compliance Program Effectiveness Report reveals a clear disconnect between ethical expectations at the executive level and what it calls real-world decision-making among middle and front-line managers. In other words, organizations can say the right things and may even have the correct policies in place, but that does not mean that these translate into what actually happens on an everyday basis. Indeed, the report found that, while 91% of executives and senior leaders in 'high-impact' financial services ethics and compliance programs are reported to make decisions consistently in line with company values, only 28% of middle managers are reported to do the same. That is a staggering 63-point gap. In a statement launching the report, Ty Francis, LRN's chief advisory officer, said the findings reinforced 'the need for financial institutions to invest in ethical culture initiatives beyond the executive level.' That is putting it mildly. Either something is seriously wrong with the recruitment procedures and/or the training is inadequate. Whatever the cause, and it is hard to imagine that the extraordinary rewards still enjoyed by those running some financial institutions do not create something of a sense of entitlement, things — probably particularly in the area of incentives — need to change pretty quickly. As LRN points out, effective ethics and compliance programs are no longer just about mitigating risk, they are also fundamental to sustainable business success. That is crucial in any sector, but in the financial industry — as we have seen only too recently — it is especially so.
