Madoff is taking down European banks as well

[malaise]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24800695-5017997,00.html
<snip>
TWO months after being hammered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, banks and investment funds in Europe are trembling in the face of the massive fraud allegedly perpetrated by New York broker Bernard Madoff.

Spain's largest bank Santander said customers of its hedge fund Optimal have an exposure of €2.33 billion ($4.7 billion) to the alleged fraud committed Mr Madoff.

The bank, Europe's second largest by market capitalisation, also said it had invested €17 million of its own funds in Madoff products.

“The exposure of Santander customers in Optimal Strategic is €2.33 billion, of which €2.01 billion is from institutional investors and customers from private international banking,” it said in a statement.

Mr Madoff was arrested last week for allegedly defrauding his customers through a giant pyramid scheme, with prosecutors alleging that the 70-year-old, a decades-long veteran of Wall Street, confessed to losing at least $US50 billion ($75 billion) in the so-called Ponzi scheme.

Mr Madoff's company, Bernard L. Mr Madoff Investment Securities, attracted “the world's financial aristocracy,” said the Spanish newspaper El Pais.

[Warpy]

1. I wish prison would be meted out according to the number of people

a criminal had hurt and how badly he had hurt them.

This piece of shit would be in a cell with the door welded shut. His bones could stay there for eternity, maybe on display on Wall Street as a warning.

He's not only taken banks and the usual assortment of little old ladies of either sex, he's taken university endowments and charitable trusts.

Every official at the SEC who was in a position to do something about him should share his cell.

[Donnachaidh]

let's put that metal cell in the middle of the Mojave Desert n/t

[malaise]

3. The worst part of this is that his sons and daughter will

walk away scott free with their money and they all worked with him so they are complicit.
Trust no financial institution. They're all crooks.

[marmar]

2. Is there a parable about greed and gullibility?

If so, it applies to all of Madoff's suckers.

[malaise]

4. Yep greed is the reason they are all going down

and only the gullible are this greedy.
Jamaicans lost billions last year and early this year from similar schemes here. We have colleagues who lost most of their savings. Funny - not one of our friends or family lost a penny. We live simple lives and trust our credit union.

I'm sure we're going to lose some of our pension funds in England,through no fault of ours. I must check into that this week.

add.

[leftstreet]

5. BWAHAHAHA Greed is Good !!!111