Fairfield Takes on Madoff
AP
As Fairfield town officials deal with losing $42 million in municipal pension money it invested with Madoff, they are turning all Law and Order and have started their own criminal investigation.
Disgraced New York financier Bernard Madoff has Fairfield fuming over the loss of $42 million and town officials are not sitting around as Madoff sits in his cushy penthouse on New York’s Upper East Side.
As town officials deal with losing $42 million in municipal pension money it invested with Madoff, they are turning all Law & Order and have started their own criminal investigation.
Deputy Fairfield Police Chief Gary MacNamara said his department will investigate a fraud complaint filed by the town, while Town Attorney Richard Saxl said officials will pursue other legal actions to try to recoup as much money as possible.
Volunteer members of Fairfield's pension board had invested $22 million of funds for 800 town workers and 300 retirees in Madoff's company and thought its stake had grown to $42 million.
MacNamara said he expects police to apply for an arrest warrant for Madoff when their investigation is complete. Madoff is now being prosecuted in federal court in Manhattan.
Madoff, 70, is accused of duping investors out of as much as $50 billion in what may be the largest Ponzi scheme ever.
Fairfield is one of several Connecticut connections to the alleged scheme.
Other Connecticut connections:
- Center for Children’s Advocacy, a Hartford-based legal advocacy group for children, lost $85,000.
- Fairfield Greenwich Advisors had part of its $7.5 billion fund invested with Madoff. How much it lost is unknown.
- Hadassah, a national volunteer organization of Jewish women founded in 1921, lost $90 million. There are 26 Hadassah chapters in Connecticut, according to its Web site.
- Maxam Capital Management, based in Darien, might be forced to close, the New York Post reported. It lost $280 million.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC Connecticut
Posted Sunday, Jul 19, 2009 - 11:16 PM EST
