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December 29, 2008
Whatever happened to "don't put all your eggs in one basket"?
From an interesting Madoff article at Bloomberg.com:
U.S. foundations that invested with Bernard Madoff donated more than $73 million to nonprofit organizations in 2007, according to a tally based on foundation tax returns.The Dec. 11 arrest of the 70-year-old New Yorker has directly affected some 400 U.S. nonprofits, from Amnesty International to the Death Penalty Information Center to the Lymphoma Research Foundation. A precise accounting of Madoff-related losses isn't possible. Each week brings new disclosures, and several foundations that said they had money with Madoff haven't indicated how much. He is accused of operating a Ponzi scheme.
. . .
The JEHT Foundation -- which gave away $24.2 million last year, primarily toward criminal justice reform -- and the Picower Foundation -- which distributed $268 million since 1989 -- both recently announced that they've been forced to close.
I don't really understand the chart at the link - how the JEHT foundation had assets of $7.5 million but gave away $24.2 million, but still. Maybe they left out a zero or two? The Picower foundation, which seems to have lost everything, had $958,425,057.
By the way - look at the number of higher education recipients in the lists. Ripples.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at December 29, 2008 9:44 AM
Comments
note that one of the other foundations gave the JEHT foundation almost $30M that year.... JEHT was probably just redistributing.
....Ahah - good catch. Foundations actually do a lot of that. --MCT
Posted by: Patrick at December 29, 2008 10:42 AM