Toomre Capital Markets LLC ("TCM") has been consumed during the few weeks doing the "real" work of our consulting company — that is serving the needs of our paying clients. As a result, with client projects occupying so much of our working day, we have had little spare time to focus further on the Bernie Madoff fraud scandal. Hence, TCM's postings on this subject have been lighter than usual and the moderated comments have not been addressed as quickly as usual.

Please bear with us as the work crunch continues a bit longer. However, even at this early hour of the morning of Thursday February 5th 2009, TCM would like to highlight two pretty remarkable events that have occurred in the past day with regard to the Bernie Madoff affair. The first concerns the quite amazing and frank testimony of Harry Markopolos in both his written testimony and his oral remarks and answers. How could anyone not admire a man long on the tail of the Bernie Madoff? And how could one not come away with a heady admiration of the way that he thoroughly dissected the regulatory failures that allowed the Madoff affair to thrive for so long?

Mr. Markopolos' written testimony is a must read!!! And in his oral testimony, he stated that there are maybe another dozen Madoff "feeder funds" lying in the weeds not yet willing to disclose their near complete losses? Who might those European funds might be? Toomre Capital Markets LLC intends to return to Mr. Markopolos' testimony in the next few days when there is a bit more free time. In the meantime, definitely read what the mainstream media has to say about the unheard Madoff whistle-blower and his Congressional testimony.

The second item that TCM would like to briefly highlight is the document that AlixPartners LLP, a Dallas company hired as the claims agent by the trustee overseeing the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities. That document was filed in New York federal court on February 4th and contains approximately 13,000 people and/or entities that have thus far been identified as either having had an active account with Bernie Madoff at the time of his arrest or had previously done so. This list of information is truly fascinating!!!

Michael D. Sullivan is a local accountant in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. According to this article in the January 31st 2009 edition of The Sun Sentinel, he is the founder and managing partner of S & P Investment Group which collected "tens of millions of dollars from friends, colleagues and fellow church members and invested it with Bernie Madoff." Several of his more than 150 investors indicated that they were referred to Mr. Sullivan by local accountants Frank Avellino and Michael Bienes or met him through his and Mr. Avellino's membership at Christ Church in Fort Lauderdale.

According to this article, S & P Investment Group was formed with partner Greg Powell in 1991 and closed it down two years later. In 1992, Mr. Sullivan began to send investor funds to be managed by Madoff. Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Powel and accountant Steven F. Jacob opened SPJ Investments in 1999, contributing $100 million into the venture at start up, according to records filed with the Florida Secretary of State. There are no records on file for the entities S & P Associates, P & S Associates, or Guardian Angel Trust, all of which were apparently partnerships in which individual investor funds were bundled up and then passed onto Bernie Madoff.

Later the article suggests that many of his investors came from Avellino & Bienes ("A&B"). Apparently for six years in the 1990's, the three men and their companies occupied the same floor at 6550 Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale. Thus, Toomre Capital Markets LLC ("TCM") suspects that Michael Sullivan and his partnerships were the vehicle that Michael Bienes in particular used to help investors who had invested in the unregistered A&B notes keep their money with Madoff after the SEC enforcement action at the end of 1992.

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.

The Friday January 23rd 2009 edition of The Wall Street Journal included an article entitled Probers Work Backward on Madoff written by Kara Scannell and Amir Efrati. This article summarizes the unusual case in the Bernie Madoff scandal where the principal figure was the first to confess to his criminal behavior. Normally, prosecutors and investigators work their way up the chain to the principle figure(s). In the Madoff case, they have been forced to work backwards to figure out who else could have helped Mr. Madoff, who said that he acted alone.

According to the article, the SEC recently issued subpoenas to a Madoff lieutenant, one JoAnn "Jodi" Crupi, and a brokerage firm affiliated with Mr. Madoff. Ms. Crupi is represented by lawyer Eric R. Breslin. Regulators are focused on documents about her compensation and her dealings with certain firm clients, including some charities. They also have asked for access to her personal computer. This last request makes Toomre Capital Markets LLC ("TCM") wonder whether regulators suspect that there were communications with clients from private e-mail accounts (as reportedly happened earlier in the timeline of this scandal).

Also, apparently regulators are preparing to issue a second subpoena to another Madoff associate, Frank DiPascali. He is represented by lawyer Marc Mukasey of the firm Bracewell & Giuliani LLP in New York. Mr. DiPascali has been reported to be Mr. Madoff's senior assistant (or even chief financial officer) and, according to Bloomberg News, investors' "Go-To" guy in the operation of the investment management business. According to investor Tim Murray of Minnesota, Mr. DiPascali was a “street-smart New Yorker” who fielded calls about the millions of dollars he entrusted to the firm. “To a Madoff customer with a discretionary account, he is the guy,” said Mr. Murray, 57, a real-estate developer. “There is nobody else.”

Ms. Crupi and Mr. DiPascali both worked on the now infamous 17th floor where the investment management portion of Bernie Madoff's business was kept separate from the broker/dealer market making operations. Like many who have learned of this fraud, authorities do not believe Mr. Madoff's assertion that he acted alone in pulling off such a large fraudulent scheme that seems to have stretched back at least three decades and involved literally thousands of investors. Those investors received monthly and quarterly account statements that are now believed to be fraudulent. One of the open questions is: Who helped Bernie Madoff prepare such detailed and ultimately fraudulent statements?