Alleged scam's victims list includes famous names
— -- The list of investors allegedly victimized by Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff in what may be the world's largest Ponzi scheme expanded rapidly Monday, adding both individual investors and some of the world's largest financial institutions.
The growing roster now features a virtual Who's Who, including the charitable foundations of Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, movie director Steven Spielberg, Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and New York publisher Mortimer Zuckerman.
The latest potential losses in what Madoff last week told the FBI was a $50 billion scam ranged from an estimated $1 billion exposure for Britain's HSBC Holdings, to $6 million gone for Irwin Kellner, a New York economist and plaintiff in the first proposed class-action lawsuit in the case.
"The scope is stunning in the breadth of categories of individuals and institutions that have been caught up," said Mark Mulholland, a lawyer for Kellner. "From gray-haired widows who lost a few hundred thousand dollars, to pension funds, college endowments and financial institutions that lost $90 million, $100 million or far more."
The charitable foundation for Lautenberg, a Democratic Senate veteran who received $2,600 from Madoff for his recent re-election bid, reported at least $241,334 in income from the investment on its 2006 tax filing. That signals millions at risk.
Senate staff counsel Scott Mulhauser confirmed Lautenberg and the foundation were among Madoff's investors, but declined to provide financial figures.
Similarly, the 2006 tax filing of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity listed $310,519 in profit from a Madoff account. Spielberg's Wunderkinder Foundation reported $339,255 in Madoff-related dividends and interest. The amounts indicate more than $1 million in investments.
Wiesel's foundation did not return a message seeking comment, and the accounting firm for Spielberg's foundation said it would not discuss the matter.
Zuckerman, publisher of U.S. News & World Report and the New York Daily News, said on CNBC TV that a money manager had invested $30 million, or 10% of the publisher's charitable trust, with Madoff.
