Extent of Madoff fraud now estimated at far below $50 billion

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Extent of Madoff fraud now estimated at far below $50 billion
By Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondent  03/08/09

The scale of the financial fraud attributed to Bernard Madoff is significantly smaller than the originally reported sum of $50 billion , which gave it the Ponzi scheme the dubious title of greatest white-collar fraud in history.

Investigators claim Madoff himself told them that he stole $50 billion, but it is becoming increasingly clear that the number may be as fictitious as the sprawling fraud that he allegedly ran.

A growing number of people involved in the case and outside observers are saying that the actual loss to investors could be far less than the mind-boggling total often treated as fact. The actual number is not known at this point, but some believe it's less than $20 billion.

"I'd be pulling a number out of the air," Stephen Harbeck, president of the Securities Investor Protection Corp., told The Associated Press this week when asked how much money he thought was swindled.
Rest of story: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1069457.html
 
Broadcaster Larry King, Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax and World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein have at least one thing in common: Their names appear on a list of several thousand clients of disgraced financial wizard Bernard Madoff. The list has been made public in a court filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1061775.html

The number of victims from Bernard Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme continues to grow. A list with thousands of names of clients who invested money with Mr. Madoff was released as part of a bankruptcy-court filing. Below, see some of the most exposed investors and sort by the amount of potential losses. --Updated 03/06/09


Partial List:
http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/st_madoff_victims_20081215.html#top

The full list:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/madoffclientlist020409.pdf

A few names on the list:

Zsa Zsa Gabor - ( lost $10,000,000), Phyllis George, Larry king, Sandy Koufax, John Malkovich, Kevin Bacon and wife, Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg