(Reportedly - not confirmed), super polluter Ira Rennert lost a vast fortune due to Bernard Madoff

[brentspeak]

Various blogs I'm reading are repeating a CNBC story that Rennert, founder of major-league polluter Renco, was "heavily, heavily invested" with Madoff. I can't find any CNBC print story to confirm this, however.

(Here's a CNBC story about the Madoff fraud, but no mention of Rennert: http://www.cnbc.com/id/28195029/)

[pa28]

1. I think we'll be hearing many such stories in the coming days.

Familiar names and their big fortunes vaporized.

Perhaps they can have a telethon.

[anigbrowl]

2. Seems quite a lot of people thought he was insider trading or so, but...

they invested with him anyway. The (stated) returns on investment were unreal, not one negative month since 1990. Even in October, when the S&P took a steep nosedive, Madoff's fund was still reporting profits. Seems quite a few people suspected that Madoff was using his market-making activities to gather intelligence for insider trading, but they all wanted a slice.

[brentspeak]

4. Yup. Some of Madoff's victims suspected wrongdoing, but didn't mind

Their greed was their undoing.

[roguevalley]

3. I love billionaires and other trash taking hits. Good stuff.

[aquart]

5. I don't suppose there's a chance he turned all those golden parachutes to lead balloons?