Mets’ Owners Guarded Investment Pipeline to Madoff
By SERGE F. KOVALESKI
NYT
It was an opportunity that Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, the owners of the Mets, extended only to select people: the chance to invest with their old friend Bernard L. Madoff.
Over the years, those chosen for the strange and unique investment opportunity included the talk show host Larry King, Mr. Wilpon’s secretary, a construction executive and a professional baseball player and his wife.
Mr. Wilpon and Mr. Katz marveled at Mr. Madoff’s record of success and talked of returns that would consistently outperform the market. But to be among those referred by the Mets’ owners, one had to agree to odd and puzzling terms that restricted direct contact with or questioning of Mr. Madoff. Sterling Equities, the family company that owns the Mets, would administer all the referred accounts and handle the transactions between the investors and Mr. Madoff’s firm.
Those invited into this rarefied club — including relatives of Sterling management, an investment banker who is also a supper club entertainer, a technology entrepreneur and a theater industry executive — would not send money to Mr. Madoff. Instead, it would be filtered through the Sterling partner and the Mets board member Arthur Friedman, a certified public accountant with a law degree who served as the liaison to Mr. Madoff’s operation.
(More here.)
NYT
It was an opportunity that Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, the owners of the Mets, extended only to select people: the chance to invest with their old friend Bernard L. Madoff.
Over the years, those chosen for the strange and unique investment opportunity included the talk show host Larry King, Mr. Wilpon’s secretary, a construction executive and a professional baseball player and his wife.
Mr. Wilpon and Mr. Katz marveled at Mr. Madoff’s record of success and talked of returns that would consistently outperform the market. But to be among those referred by the Mets’ owners, one had to agree to odd and puzzling terms that restricted direct contact with or questioning of Mr. Madoff. Sterling Equities, the family company that owns the Mets, would administer all the referred accounts and handle the transactions between the investors and Mr. Madoff’s firm.
Those invited into this rarefied club — including relatives of Sterling management, an investment banker who is also a supper club entertainer, a technology entrepreneur and a theater industry executive — would not send money to Mr. Madoff. Instead, it would be filtered through the Sterling partner and the Mets board member Arthur Friedman, a certified public accountant with a law degree who served as the liaison to Mr. Madoff’s operation.
(More here.)
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