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Administration January 8, 2009
List of Pension Funds Claiming Madoff Losses Grows
January 8, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - As investors and
regulators sort through the assets affected by a $50-billion
Ponzi scheme orchestrated by Bernard L. Madoff, the list of
pension funds claiming losses grows.
Reported by Rebecca Moore
In Central New York, the United Union of Roofers Waterproofers & Allied Workers Local 195 in Cicero, Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 73 in Oswego; and the Empire State Carpenters Fringe Benefit Funds recently sent letters telling members they lost money in investments with Madoff, according to the Syracuse Post-Standard.
The funds are still trying to figure out how much money was stolen. “It’s not that easy to unravel,” Patrick B. Morin, secretary, treasurer and business manager for the Empire State Carpenters Union, told the Post-Standard. In some cases, the union is trying to re-create investment records that go back more than 15 years, he said.
One of the union’s money managers, J.P. Jeanneret Associates of Syracuse, used the Madoff fund in its portfolio of investments. According to the letter sent to members, the carpenters fund trustees have decided to hire a law firm for the case, plus a security fraud litigation firm to file a class action lawsuit on behalf of the fund’s participants.
The roofers union Local 195 sent a letter to members that its fund was in “critical status,” Business Manager Ron Haney confirmed Friday, and the United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 267 in Syracuse said earlier that it had lost money through investments with Jeanneret that had money invested with Madoff.
The New York State AFL-CIO has said it has heard of about eight unions in the Syracuse area that lost money through investments with Madoff, the news report said.