Money manager Stanley Chais and "entities" associated with him are apparently under criminal investigation stemming from the Bernard Madoff affair. Toomre Capital Markets LLC ("TCM") previously wrote about Mr. Chais in the post Stanley Chais, A Fund Feeder to Bernie Madoff.

Late on Friday December 11th 2009 various news services are reporting that prosecutors from the Southern District of New York made a formal request to intervene in a civil lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. According to Bloomberg News, “The government’s criminal investigation seeks to determine whether Chais and others have violated various federal criminal statutes,” including conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Stellmach wrote in a legal brief. Prosecutors think they will decide whether to charge Chais or businesses related to him by mid-June, Stellmach wrote.

Based upon the recent sharp increase in website visitors and both the public and private feedback, Toomre Capital Markets LLC ("TCM") appears to have become one of the better resources for information regarding the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLC fraud scandal. TCM's two principals, Lars Toomre and Aldon Hynes, are geeks at heart and tend to be better with numbers and technology than names and social relationships. Of course, though, the Madoff fraud abounds with so many investors, organizations, charities, lawyers and other entities that have names and relationships that cumulatively quickly become overwhelming.

Hence, Lars and Aldon thought that this website's readership might appreciate some visualization to assist in gaining a better understanding of some of the many principals and relationships that are a part of the Madoff fraud scandal. Most of the labels on the visualization below link back to other content on this website. This first graph (of what may become several) depicts what we acknowledge is incomplete information about the major "feeder funds" that contributed investor dollars to the Bernie Madoff's investment operation:

Visualization of Madoff Securities "Feeder Funds":

TCM would appreciate receiving comments in the section below about information that should be incorporated into the above graph. We will endeavor to update both this post and to produce additional social network graphs about other portions of the complex Madoff fraud social network map. Reader comments and thoughts are not only welcome, but also highly encouraged.

Stanley Chais, 82, is a private investor who has been active in a wide range of Israeli and American Jewish charitable activities over the past 30 years. Apparently, over the past thirty years, Mr. Chais has combined his business activities with a wide range of philanthropic endeavors for the benefit of Jewish communities in the United States, the former Soviet Union (FSU) and Israel. He believes that “all Jews are responsible for each other", and therefore, he, who can afford it, should support areas that promote learning and culture.

Stanley Chais also is the head of a limited partnership or investment management firm, Brighton Co. of Beverly Hills, California, that apparently served as a "feeder fund' to Bernie Madoff's investment scheme. It had invested and hence lost about $250 million with Bernie Madoff. From The Los Angeles Times, one might learn that apparently Mr. Chais previously served on more than one charitable boards with Bernie Madoff. Stanley Chais and his firm also have been sued by one Michael Chaleff of Arlington, VA, a former Justice Department lawyer. Mr. Chaleff's lawyer, a certain Reed Kathrien, with the Oakland firm of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, indicates that many of Brighton's investors were in the investment business and lost small fortunes "because they'd been in [the investment funds] for 10 or 20 or 30 years."

According to the suit, Mr. Chaleff was part of a 50-member investment group called CMG that lost $75 to $80 million it gave to Brighton Co. Mr. Chais apparently managed about 10 such groups of investors and substantially all of those collective funds were invested in Bernie Madoff's fraudulent scheme.

The class-action suit filed on Mr. Chaleff's behalf alleges that the Brighton firm was "aware of, or recklessly disregarded, the misuse and mismanagement of investment funds." Subsequent to Bernie Madoff's arrest, Stanley Chais indicated that he had not only personally invested with Madoff, but also had "facilitated" others who desired to do likewise. He also claimed that he and his family also were "swindled" and had lost "a huge amount of money."

A bit ominously for Mr. Chais, both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the California Department of Corporations reported that they could not find any records of Chais registering as an investment advisor or broker. Also of concern, Mr. Chais apparently took a piece of the partnership's profits as management fees, usually according to one investor about 3.8%, from a partnership that was a "kind of private, hush-hush fund" geared toward "private arbitrage accounts." That same investor indicated that he and his wife thought the partnership funds were invested in currencies, stocks and other securities. More ominously, Bernie Madoff's name and his investment firm never were mentioned.