January 29, 2009
Madoff Scandal's Impact on Foundations, In Numbers
Nicholas Kristof, the New York Times columnist, has a blog post about the Madoff scandal’s impact on foundations. The post includes a link to a list that a friend of his (Daniel E. Smith, president of Benefit Technology) compiled for Mr. Kristof.
The 14-page list includes the names of 147 foundations who had at least some of their money wiped out by Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
Mr. Kristof notes that, interestingly, Mr. Madoff’s sons, Mark and Andrew, did not invest their philanthropic dollars with their father. They also used big accounting firms.
By contrast, most of the foundations on the list shared the same accounting firms, which tended to be small. Mr. Kristof wonders if the accountants should have been looking more skeptically at the kinds of trades supposedly done by Mr. Madoff.
He also says the philanthropic world should “wonder if there aren’t more Madoffs out there .. If I were a board member of a nonprofit, I’d be making some calls.”
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What’s also astounding — and another key point Kristof emphasizes — is that 144 foundations put all or most assets w/Madoff. Such a monolithic investment strategy flies in the face of fiduciary responsibility.
Here’s the list of the losers.
http://is.gd/hQ8C
— Nancy Schwartz Jan 30, 02:48 PM #