Yahoo News/AFP reports that the Elie Wiesel Foundation lost nearly everything in the Madoff scheme. I’m sure you are all aware of Holocaust survivor Wiesel and his work. Lest we think these Wall Street schemes only effect the rich and the rich wannabees.
“We are writing to inform you that the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity had 15.2 million dollars under management with Bernard Madoff Investment Securities,” said the foundation, which aims to combat anti-Semitism, on its website. “This represented substantially all of the Foundation’s assets,” it said. “We are deeply saddened and distressed that we, along with many others, have been the victims of what may be one of the largest investment frauds in history.”
Wiesel, 80, a Nobel laureate and prolific author who survived the Holocaust, created the foundation some 20 years ago to foster international dialogue and youth programs to teach tolerance.
I suspect we will see, in time, that the machinations of Wall Street and the big banks will begin to effect everyday people more and more everyday. Madoff is the tip of a very big iceberg.
Yet, I have heard shockingly little from O and the Congressional democrats on new regulation, much less holding these scumbags accountable, other than the ridiculous bail out schemes we have seen to date. Instead, the people at the center of these ridiculous financial instruments and schemes (e.g., Lawrence Summers, Robert Rubin) have been systematically invited in to advise O. It is time to call these people out for what they are, scumbags, and assure they have nothing to do with government, the banking industry or Wall Street anytime in the future.