Family Gave Madoff $10M Just Before Bust

Date: Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Author: HFN Daily report

The family behind a leading Big Apple energy company gave Bernard Madoff $10 million to invest less than a week before he was charged for running the largest Ponzi scheme ever.

The Rosenman clan grew Stuyvesant Fuel Service from an ice delivery business started in 1934 into an independent heating and oil provider. Hess Corp. bought the company in 2008. The family is suing Madoff trustee Irving Picard over any claim to the money. A court appointed Picard to unwind the Madoff investment business.

The complaint said Madoff told the family he was not taking money until Jan. 1, 2009, but that they could wire him the $10 million and he would hold onto it until then. The family sent Modoff the money Dec. 3, just before he was charged with his $50 billion swindle.

Picard is claiming the $10 million is property of the Madoff estate.

The complaint is the latest legal maneuver piled onto the Madoff scandal.

On Monday, the Baltimore police and fire pension fund lost $3.5 million investing with Madoff. The plan sponsor is expecting to join a lawsuit against Madoff.

Madoff, 70, is under house arrest and due in court on Jan. 12. He was arrested after telling his family that his $17 billion investment business had less than $300 million left.