Scene of the crime

All of these years, since early 1999, I have walked past the scene of a great crime and never realized it. Whenever I had some money to deposit or some paperwork to do at one of my brokerage firms, Muriel Siebert & Co., I would walk over to the so-called Lipstick Building here in midtown Manhattan, sign-in with security in the lobby, take the elevator to the 17th floor, walk down the hallway past the restrooms and some random, nondescript "investment" firm, and enter Siebert's office at the end of the hall. I never paid much attention to that random "investment" firm that I passed in the hall since it was simply a nondescript door with a nondescript little sign next to it. Nothing notable whatsoever. But, this morning, an article in The New York Times by Diana Henriques and Alex Berenson entitled "The 17th Floor, Where Wealth Went to Vanish" informs us that the nondescript office I walked past so many times in the past 10 years was in fact the "epicenter of what may be the largest Ponzi scheme in history":

The epicenter of what may be the largest Ponzi scheme in history was the 17th floor of the Lipstick Building, an oval red-granite building rising 34 floors above Third Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.

A busy stock-trading operation occupied the 19th floor, and the computers and paperwork of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities filled the 18th floor.

But the 17th floor was Bernie Madoff's sanctum, occupied by fewer than two dozen staff members and rarely visited by other employees. It was called the "hedge fund" floor, but federal prosecutors now say the work Mr. Madoff did there was actually a fraud scheme whose losses Mr. Madoff himself estimates at $50 billion.

Huh! Who knew!?!?

Just to correct The Times, Bernie's offices are only a portion of the 17th floor. Siebert has the rest.

Mind-boggling. It just goes to show how in today's world $50 billion is mere chump change.

This afternoon coming back from my noontime walk up to Central Park I noticed some TV camera guys and photographers just off Lexington Avenue at 64th Street. I asked one TV cameraman what was up and he mentioned "the gentleman with the $50 billion." That was 133 East 64th Street, just west of Lexington Avenue. Hard to say if it was the guy's apartment or some office he was visiting. Actually, a Google search shows that Ruth Madoff (Bernie's wife) used that address for an election contribution financial disclosure statement. There are numerous references to that address for Bernie as well. Note: That is not a fancy-looking building.

Lucky for me, I am too poor to have earned the right to invest in Bernie's "scheme." But, the owner of one of my bank accounts, Banco Santander (who owns Sovereign Bank), is high up on the list of firms with "exposure."

-- Jack Krupansky