Madoff's operation is still a puzzlement. Both fund-of-fund managers and direct investors seemed to think of it as a hedge fund. Yet hedge-fund investors own partnership interests or shares or something. Madoff investors owned nothing; they merely opened brokerage accounts with him.
The New York Times succinctly describes the problem of custodianship that resulted:
[Westport National's custodian] agreement … indicates that the bank would take custody of whatever investments Mr. Madoff made on the customers’ behalf. For example, the agreement specifically requires the bank to adequately document the customers’ ownership of investments made with the Madoff firm “and held by the bank as custodian.”You can read the entire custodian agreement here.
In fact, there was nothing for the bank to hold since Mr. Madoff never bought any securities for his investors, according to the bankruptcy trustee ….
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