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Title: Top SEC lawyer earned more than $1.5m after mother invested in Madoff Ponzi scheme
Source:
Daily Mail
URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art ... ested-Madoff-Ponzi-scheme.html
Published: Feb 26, 2011
Author: Daily Mail Reporter
Post Date: 2011-02-26 07:44:11 by Happy Quanzaa
Keywords: Statist SOP
Views: 372
The head lawyer of the Securities and Exchange Commission earned more than $1.5million via his mother’s estate. She invested in Bernard Madoff’s infamous Ponzi scheme. David Becker, appointed SEC general counsel and senior policy director less than two months after Madoff’s arrest, has been requested to return the funds from gotten gains. Irving Picard, a partner from Baker Hostetler, who are centrally involved in the recovery of funds from the Madoff investment scandal, is chasing Becker and his two brothers, who also earned from the Madoff investment. According to the investigation, Becker’s mother’s estate, of which all of the brothers are co-executors, received more than $2million from Madoff’s investment firm. And the Manhattan Bankruptcy Court papers claimed that: ‘The investigation has revealed that $1,544,494 of this amount was fictitious profit from the Ponzi scheme.’ The papers insist that $2.04million was taken out from the estate’s account in February 2005 - almost a year after the boys’ mother, Dorothy, died. A further $1,648 was taken out three months later, leading to questions about Becker’s involvement. Madoff filed his statements to the SEC and red flags should have been raised sooner, some believe. A former federal prosecutor told Newser: ‘If families of high-ranking SEC officials were heavily invested in Madoff it may help explain why the SEC was less than vigilant in scrutinising his activities. ‘We know they were asleep at the switch.' Becker was the SEC's general counsel from 2000-2002 and again from 2009 until earlier this month, having joined the agency in 1998 as deputy general counsel. And a spokesman for his former company confirmed yesterday that Becker received the complaint several days ago. 'He had no involvement with his parents' financial affairs, and no recollection of his parents' account with Madoff prior to his mother's death and subsequent liquidation of the account,' the spokesman said on behalf of Becker, according to the New York Post. Becker was reached last night and said: 'There's no allegations of wrongdoing on anyone's part other than by Madoff. 'This is about my parents' investments. I had nothing to do with my parents' investments.' When asked he had mentioned the investments to the top brass at the SEC - which has been roundly criticised for failing to uncover Madoff's $65 billion scam - he replied, 'I don't discuss internal conversations with the SEC.' Meanwhile, the lawyers for the New York Mets' owners yesterday filed a counter paper at Picard, who is in the process of suing them in an atempt to claw back more than $300million in Madoff profits. The papers, which were filed on behalf of Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, request that Picard hand over all discovery material so both sides will know what to expect. The sides have agreed to mediation, which has already begun, overseen by former Governor Mario Cuomo.
David Becker, the former top lawyer at the SEC,
has been asked to return money his mother
earned though investing in Bernard Madoff's
Ponzi scheme
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