Why is it the same names keep popping up, scandal after scandal.

Who'da thunk? Dems made off with Madoff loot!
Wall Street swindler gave hundreds of thousands to candidates

March 12, 2009 10:31 am Eastern

By Jerome R. Corsi


NEW YORK – As Wall Street fund manager Bernard Madoff pleads guilty to 11 counts of criminal fraud in the largest investment Ponzi scheme in U.S. history, prominent Democratic politicians apparently have no intention of returning to Madoff's victims the more than $260,000 he contributed almost entirely to Democratic Party campaigns since the Clinton administration.

While the mainstream media have given considerable coverage to the Madoff scandal, few reporters mention Madoff was a Democrat with a history of thousands of dollars in contributions to Democratic Party candidates.



Bernard Madoff

According to Federal Election Commission records, among Madoff's dozens of contributions to Democrats were the following:

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.: $2,000 in 2002, $6,000 in 2004 and another $2,000 in 1998;


Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.: $1,000 in 2000


House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo, presidential campaign: $2,000 in 2003;


Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.: $1,000 in 2001; $1,000 in 1998;


Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.: $10,200 in 2007; $1,000 in 2004;


Gov. Jon Corzine, D-N.J.: $1,000 in 1999.

Madoff appears to have gotten around rules limiting campaign contributions. For instance, he contributed not only to Schumer's campaign but also to a group called "The Friends of Schumer."

Madoff also contributed to Lautenberg's campaign and to the senator's NJ Victory Committee.

Madoff appears to have contributed more than $100,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee while Schumer was chairman, including a $25,000 contribution in 2005.

OpenSecrets.org at the Center for Responsive Politics reports that Madoff and other individuals at his company, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, gave $372,100 in campaign contributions beginning in 1991, with 89 percent going to Democrats.

The offices of Schumer and Rangel did not return WND phone calls asking for comment.

Lautenberg's office referred the call to his attorney in Newark, Mike Griffinger, who also did not return WND's phone call.

Corzine's office indicated he had donated Madoff's campaign contributions to charity.

The State Department did not return a WND phone call asking about how Secretary of State Clinton planned to handle contributions Madoff made to her political campaigns.

http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=91510

Yeah... because $260,000 out of $50B is significant... let alone any real amount of money to the victims. Should they give the money back? Maybe (but we know it was already spent). How many people got screwed? I'd imagine 1000 if not more. So $260 for each victim really matters, I'm sure.

(03-12-2009 11:45 AM)mlb Wrote:  Yeah... because $260,000 out of $50B is significant... let alone any real amount of money to the victims. Should they give the money back? Maybe (but we know it was already spent). How many people got screwed? I'd imagine 1000 if not more. So $260 for each victim really matters, I'm sure.

How can you be so obtuse about it. Oh, yea it wasn't your money.

I looked up some of this when the Madoff story broke. He gave a couple of donations to ® as well. Not nearly as much, but it's worth mentioning.

yea, who, I'd like to know.

Senator Snowe?

(03-12-2009 11:56 AM)SumOfAllFears Wrote:  yea, who, I'd like to know.

Senator Snowe?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/...liticians/

Google "madoff political donations" you'll find plenty.

alot, maybe a majority of High Level Finance(Investment Bankers, Hedge Fund managers, etc) are Democrats. There's a political myth out there that all these guys are Repubs...that type of finance needs a big govt. setting favorable(to them) regulations.

Warren Buffet, Progressive Insurance guy, George Soros, Corzine, Paulson etc.

Jim Cramer is asking for his donations back though..

all that said, alot of that is about the fact he's in NYC and Northeast in general and that is who gets elected.

Chris Dodd and Barney Frank and their connections to the Mortgage industry is a case of fraud and the root of our financial issues.

89% to Democrats
11% to Republicans

It's good to know exactly who got what.

Enron bilked 100 billion from investors in 2001
Madoff bilked 65 billion from investors in 2008

Where was the SEC.?

(03-12-2009 12:05 PM)GGniner Wrote:  alot, maybe a majority of High Level Finance(Investment Bankers, Hedge Fund managers, etc) are Democrats. There's a political myth out there that all these guys are Repubs...that type of finance needs a big govt. setting favorable(to them) regulations.

Exactly. These guys recognize that big gov't requires an economy of scale for businesses to match...a scale that they can meet and that reduces competition.

It is ironic that favoring business in general often means opposing certain businesses in the specific.

(03-12-2009 11:48 AM)SumOfAllFears Wrote:  How can you be so obtuse about it. Oh, yea it wasn't your money.

I can be obtuse about it because it is chump change and really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. He bilked so many investors, $260K will not amount to anything for the investors. He probably had well over 1000 people, so it would probably be significantly less than $260 per person (when pretty much everyone who invested with him had over $1M, many with $50M or more).