Bernie Madoff: Noel Levine & Troon Management Inc. Shared Madoff Office & Phone @ 885 Third Ave-17th Fl
Odd that no one is reporting on the relationship between Bernie Madoff and Noel Levine. I only found one reference to Noel Levine possibly losing money with Madoff but Levine's firm, Troon Management Inc., shares an office and a phone number with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC.
The address is the 17th Floor, 885 Third Ave NYC. The phone number is (212) 240-2424 and the fax is (212) 486-8178. The only other occupant of the 17th floor I've been able to identify is Muriel Siebert & Co., the discount broker.
Noel Levine registered Troon Management Inc. in NY in 1990. Troon Management has been listed as a real estate and equities investment company but no other information seems to be publicly available.
Levine, who lives on Park Avenue, was somehow involved in the purchase of Associated Products which was spun off by Nabisco in 1983.
More recently, Levine founded the Bank of Greenwich in Greenwich Ct and became its president in late 2006.
According to a 10/05 LA Times story, Noel Levine and his wife, Harriette, made a $12 million contribution to the Israel Museum in 2005 through their foundation.
I checked the 990s filed by the Noel and Harriette Levine Foundation and the foundation has never had more than $850,00 in assets since 2001. The assets appear to be invested with Bernie Madoff.
The foundation's address and phone number is the same as Madoff's but the books and records are in the care of Noel Levine at (212) 230-8229.
Something is screwy here.
You have to wonder if the Levines really gave $12 million to the Israel Museum.
If Noel Levine had his money invested with Bernie, where did he get the cash to start up the Bank of Greenwich?
Why did an oldster like Levine want to get involved with a local bank in Greenwich in the first place?
Noel and Harriette Levine donated more money to the Israel Museum in August 2008.
December 28, 2008 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hang on.
A Noel Levine, owner of a real estate property managment company, was swindled out of $6 million by an employee named Wendie Lauriola between 1996 and 2003.
December 28, 2008 5:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
You keep this up and you will get the Pulitzer. You know, sometimes propinquity can shed light upon propriety. But sometimes it is just serendipity.
Why would millionaires share an office and a phone?
I love conspiracy theories. Especially related to financial markets.
I assume you will remain on this, as they say.
December 28, 2008 7:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mrs P - you keep claiming that "anyone with basic financial data would have known Madoff wasn't buying and selling 20bn of Treasuries.
But if Madoff was his own custodian, how would someone such as JPM or GS (as you claim) have known this?
With Madoff as his own custodian I don't see how Goldman or JPM would have known this (or known what he was claiming)
December 28, 2008 10:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
If no one at Goldman Sachs was resourceful enough to find a Madoff investor willing to share info about Bernie's operations, Goldman Sachs could have looked at the 990s generated by some of the non-profits.
The 2001 Picower Foundation's 990 is a doozy. The foundation had $380 million in treasury bills with Bernie and $786k in treasury bills with Goldman Sachs.
Between 6/1/01 and 7/5/01, the foundation sold stock with a book value of approx. $17 million for $194 million, resulting in a gain of $176 million.
By 2007, the Picower Foundation's investment in stocks had ballooned from $237 million at book to $954 million at fair market value.
I don't believe that Goldman Sachs and every other investment firm in the NYC wasn't snooping in Bernie's business. I sure would have if I were GS or JPM and I wanted to lure Bernie's clients away.
I think there is a lot more to the Madoff story but I don't know what it is. I suspect the fraud is more extensive than anyone is letting on and I wonder if some people have been busy covering it up.
Some info seems to be missing. For example, Highbeam has an article from Greenwich Time about an ipo for the Bank of Greenwich in March 2006 but I can't find the ipo on the SEC website nor is the bank publicly traded.
In August 2006, the Plainfield Asset Management Fund LLC, a hedge fund, bought a stake in the bank. Plainfield holds stakes in a couple of casinos.
I'm interested in what property Noel Levine manages.
December 28, 2008 11:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
You seem very accusatory of Goldman and JPM - but the theory is they were snooping but didn't report it? You don't have any evidence to support that they found any evidence worth reporting. Yes Goldman looked at it and didn't like Madoff's business so put them on the blacklist, but Goldman didn't have any proof. Like I said, with Madoff as his own custodian it was very hard for Goldman to have seen much. If Goldman or JPM were the custodian and actually held the assets, then I could see how they could/should be to blame.
I agree that more people were likely in on it and haven't been brought to light yet. But you should be more focused on the accountants and other feeder funds and other employees
December 29, 2008 8:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
PS - if you're so curious about Greenwich Bank - why not call them yourself and ask them rather than spread rumors on here?
www.thebankofgreenwich.com
203-629-8400
December 29, 2008 9:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bill,
Mrs. P is not spreading rumors. She is finding connections—some pretty compelling connections—and asking reasonable questions.
The claims Madoff made all those years about his magic investment schemes simply cannot have been accepted universally as truth. If every investment company on Wall Street WASN'T trying to find out Madoff's secrets, then they're bigger idiots than I already think they are.
Simple envy should have made these companies assign people to looking into everything Madoff was doing, just in case it really was legit. The desire to get a piece of the action should have been ample motivation for some deep detective work.
This stinks, and no amount of deodorant can keep Goldman, JPM, and all the rest of them smelling sweet.
And I've thought this from the first comment I read from you: Middle Class? Really? Then why aren't you as pissed off as the rest of the middle class is?
December 29, 2008 1:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
You don't seem very middle class, Bill, nor do you seem willing to acknowledge the gravity of the situation.
The Madoff scandal seriously undermines the integrity of the US financial markets and thus is a matter of national security. I don't know who knows the extent of the fraud but as far as I am concerned, no one even remotely involved with Madoff is above suspicion.
I would like to think law enforcement has the same attitude as I do but given the extent of corruption at the local, state and federal levels of government, I am not hopeful.
Where are Senators Schumer, Lieberman and Clinton on the Madoff scandal? AG Andrew Cuomo is noticeably quiet as is Mayor Bloomberg.
And what about Lowie, Maloney, and Nadler? Or are they too busy working out deals with the Bush and Obama administrations to get the taxpayers to reimburse the Madoff "victims" for their losses? If that's the case, everyone in this country with a 401(k) should threaten to sue the SEC for negligence.
I can make an argument that the SEC and the Treasury knew how risky the derivatives markets were and that Donaldson, Cox, Snow and Paulson should have warned shareholders about the dangers. It would be fairly easy to prove that Henry Paulson lied last August when he said the worst of the subprime mortgage mess is over.
BTW, you wouldn't happen to know if Paulson has money in the hedge funds that were on the right side of the derivatives market?
Think about the treasury bills. Over the last twenty years, somebody must have asked Bernie or his brother, Peter or his niece, Shana, the compliance officer, where Bernie bought and sold treasury bills. Maybe one of Peter Madoff's fellow directors at AG Edwards was curious.
Why is Peter B. Madoff catching a break? Does anyone in his or her right mind think Pete didn't know that his customers didn't have more than $20 billion in their acounts? You'd have to be a fucking brain dead moron to believe that but apparently Bloomberg News and the WSJ are willing to give Pete a pass. Why?
What about Elizabeth Ann (Liz) Weintraub, the Madoff CIO for twenty five years who died in February of this year? She had to have been crooked and she apparently was either married to or lived with Marshall Caro who sells a stock trading software program. Caro has been around for more than thirty years and worked for Cantor Fitzgerald in the '90s.
Two experts in how stock exchange computer systems work are romantically linked and one of them worked for the biggest crook on Wall Street for 25 years. Golly gee, do you think the FBI should send a special agent out to Caro's house in Greenwich CT asap?
Or do you think the FBI shouldn't pick on poor Mr. Caro just because his dead girlfriend once worked for Bernie?
Get real.
December 29, 2008 11:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
A scamer isn't what undermines the American financial markets - that's something everyone can easily get their heads around. Unfathomable derivatives that have the potential to cost more than the world has money - THAT'S what undermines the integrity of the financial system.
Madoff managed to scam a maximum of $50bn over 30-odd years. These bankers have managed to wipe out trillions worth of value in a few short months, cost taxpayers a trillion+ and still managed to wipe out a huge chunk of my dad's retirement account - forcing him to work for the foreseeable future instead of retiring.
You think it's Madoff we need to worry about? That's bush-league compared to what was really going on that kept the regulators on the sidelines.
December 29, 2008 1:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mrs Panstreppon you certainly have lot of good questions along with your fine research. Be my guess it'll be at least a year before there's answers to your questions and chances are they won't be satisfactory ones.
It's pretty obvious the SEC wasn't doing it's job and Cox will probably get a lion's share of the blame. But really he's just a pawn, he never would have gotten the job in the first place if the powers who picked him thought he'd actually run the SEC as a functioning regulatory agency. And he didn't let them down.
December 29, 2008 12:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
You got that right. Cox has been as oblivious as w.
December 29, 2008 12:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Both of you are probably right in that the powers-that-be in NYC, NYS and DC are doing everything possible to cover this scandal up.
Personally, I think the powers-that-be in NYC and NYS should be showing the world they are doing everything they can to get to the botttom of this scandal because the future of Wall Street is in jeopardy.
Why would anyone outside of NY want to keep the financial markets here? People all over the world can now see for themselves that NYers are corrupt and won't police their own. Henry Paulson, Bernie Madoff, etc etc etc.
Want to know what passes for good deeds at Goldman Sachs and how Henry Paulson ran GS charities? Read the 990s for the Goldman Sachs Charitable Fund - EIN# 31-1678646.
As best as I can tell, GS started this scam under the pretense of awarding scholarships to needy minority students. The real reason seems to be to pass along some very valuable property in Tierra Del Fuego Argentina which was probably stolen from the Argentinians in the first place.
Some crappy general who disappeared innocent people probably grabbed the property years ago and then "sold" it to a GS partnership for $35 million on the q.t. The GS partners got the big tax break and the property stays out of the hands of the people of Argentinia.
Somebody ought to look into the Wildlife Conservation Society, imho.
Even if the government is covering up the Madoff scandal, why am I the only amateur researcher looking into it? The fact that Mukasey's son who works for Rudy is representing Frank Dipascali should have been of interest to someone at Kos.
What about all of the NYC scandal rags?
It wasn't too hard to find out that Rosalie Buccellato, Cohmad Securities partner, is a Nassau County notary and she notarized an SC mortgage for Madoff controller, Enrica A. Cotellessa Pitz and her husband, Thomas H. Pitz.
North Shore LIJ Health Systems probably invested a few mill in Madoff because Cohmad Securities partner, Maurice Jay "Sonny" Cohn sits on the board but Newsday's not talking.
The Massachusetts AG subpeonaed Marcia Beth Cohn, Cohmad Securities partner and compliance officer. Is she Sonny's daughter and what's the status of that case?
What about Elizabeth O'Toole, Madoff compliance analyst? Shana Madoff Swanson seems like she was kind of too busy being a socialite to take care of busines. What does O'Toole know and when did she know it?
What about Neil Yelsey who ran Madoff's arbitrage business for years?
Long time trader, Margaret D. Gavlik (nee Washburn)?
And how about Madoff's prime piece of beef, Heath Sroka, and his snotty, stuck up, spoiled wife, Abby Spiegel? Abby baby turned her nose up at Rudy online but I bet she's singing a different tune now.
These people all led wonderful comfortable lives but were either too stupid to notice the Madoffs were crooks or they were in on the scam.
The party should be over but it doesn't seem like that at the moment.
December 29, 2008 1:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
I clearly acknowledge the gravity of the situation. I am pissed off. But Mrs P is throwing out random things (like Bank of Greenwich and JPM and GS' involvement) just to see what sticks on the wall.
People on Wall Street (like Markopolous and Barrons) DID try to discover Madoff's "secret sauce" and they raised red flags but the SEC ignored/missed them.
I think Mrs P doesn't really understand how a broker/dealer works She keeps talking about the Treasury bills - "someone should have asked where Bernie bought and sold his Treasury bills" - Madoff WAS HIS OWN BROKER DEALER. He would have bought and sold them from all the other various dealers in the government market. He didn't use a 3rd party broker because he was his own broker. He did it directly.
Mrs P also seems to imply that something is wrong with the Bank of Greenwich because there's no S-1 filed on Edgar. Well that's because it was a private placement offering not registered with the SEC.
And Mrs P wonders where Noel Levine got his money to start up the Bank of Greenwich - but who said Levine actually started the bank? He was on the Board of Directors but didn't run the bank. How does Mrs P know that Levine was involved in funding the bank?
I am just as pissed as everybody but Mrs P is just throwing all these random facts out there trying to stir the pot without really following through on these things.
And if Mrs P really thinks she has some credible evidence of further crimes - why isn't she bringing them to the attention of the SEC instead of just dumping them on TPM?
December 29, 2008 8:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
MCBill, Stop reading my posts. Problem solved.
December 30, 2008 7:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Satisfied, MCBill?
Bank of Greenwich, Conn., opens IPO.
Publication: Greenwich Time (Greenwich, CT)
Publication Date: 14-MAR-06
Byline: Julie Fishman-Lapin
Mar. 14--With plans to launch its first branch within the next few months, The Bank of Greenwich has opened its initial stock offering to the public with the hope of raising between $10 and $15 million.
The IPO will close on April 14 and the stock will be publicly traded. The town's home-grown, state-chartered bank anticipates opening at 165 Mason St. by late spring or early summer. The start-up bank is in the process of obtaining local planning and zoning approvals to build a second branch and headquarters in the Cos Cob section of town,...
December 30, 2008 12:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mrs P - why should I stop reading your posts? You are implying that something improper is going on with Bank of Greenwich. But before you do that you should call the bank and ask questions and try to get answers. You should also know that local papers use terms like "IPO" loosely. The article I pasted below says "initial stock offering" which implies it was a private offering. You'd notice the other articles you failed to post use the term "ISO"
Where's your evidence that Levine founded the bank? Where's your evidence that Levine invested any money into the bank?Have you called the bank to ask questions or do you just like to throw out wild accusations without really following up?
Plus you keeping talking about the "treasury bills" as if Madoff was using a 3rd party broker who would have known that he wasn't buying/selling massive amounts of T-bills at the end of the month. Do you know what it means when you are your own broker/dealer?
Hedge fund buys major stake in Bank of Greenwich
By Riva Froymovich
August 11, 2006, 6:01 AM EST
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Plainfield Greenwich Holdings LLC, a division of the hedge fund firm Plainfield Asset Management LLC based in Greenwich, Conn., will become the largest shareholder in the recently launched Bank of Greenwich, according to published reports.
Banking Commissioner John Burke last week approved the acquisition of more than 10% of the outstanding shares of the Bank of Greenwich.
The bank says they raised $10 million in its initial stock offering.
The bank was founded in summer 2005 as an alternative to large banks in Greenwich, reports said, that typically have headquarters beyond town or state limits.
The exact amount of Plainfield Greenwich Holdings' stake was not disclosed.
Plainfield Asset Management reportedly manages $1.3 billion, and owns equity in San Diego-based software maker Mitek System and Las Vegas-based Riviera Holdings Corp., proprietors of the Riviera Hotel & Casino there and the Riviera Black Hawk Casino in Colorado.
December 30, 2008 12:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
I doubt very much Noel Levine became a director of the Bank of Greenwich without making an investment. In any event, I certainly don't have to justify writing about a banking relationship someone who shared an office and a telephone number with Bernie Madoff had to you.
BTW, check your own "evidence". Plainfield Greenwich Holdings LLC and Plainfield Asset Management LLC are not registered with the CT SoS.
A James Yaworski, however, registered Plainfield Limited Inc. in 1994. In 1997, then CT AG Richard Blumenthal filed a lawsuit against Yaworksi for running an illegal landfill and incinerator. I don't know if Yaworksi has anything to do with the Bank of Greenwich but if he does, dollars to doughnuts, we're talking about organized crime.
In any event, why would the CT banking commissioner, John Burke, permit an unregistered hedge fund to invest in a CT bank?
If I were picking on the Bank of Greenwich, I would have pointed out that Chairman and CEO Robert J. Oca, was fired by the Bank of Westport in 2002 under mysterious circumstances.
I'd also point out the one of the directors, John J. Fareri, a financially troubled real estate developer, was instrumental in getting the NYS legislature to spin off the Westchester Children's Hospital from the Westchester County Medical Center to supposedly help increase its revenue.
As I said, no one who was even remotely linked to Bernie Madoff is above suspicion. The Picower Foundation's 990s look as phony as a $2 bill and I can't evidence that Hadassah had more than $30 million invested with him.
December 30, 2008 7:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Would love to hear from the ex-assistant to Levine that swindled the 6M... Wendy something or another.........
December 31, 2008 1:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why would someone who's a director of the bank (Levine) have had to make an investment in the bank?
Do you think people on the board of JPM and GS have made investments in those banks? Do board members of Exxon and GE invest in those companies?
December 31, 2008 5:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Also Mrs P - Plainfield Asset Management is registered with the SEC. I don't see any reasons why the CT banking commissioner WOULDN'T let them invest in a bank.
There's other examples of private equity firms and hedge funds taking stakes in banks. TPG ponied up $7bn into WaMu back in April. And JC Flowers is trying to buy a Missouri bank. These funds have a lot of capital and are looking to deploy it.
December 31, 2008 5:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
AppleGuy,
Wendie Lauriola and her husband, Salvatore, weren't exactly master criminals. All she did was forge her name to Levine's personal checks. The Lauriolas bought a second home in SC and used some of the money to make low budget indies such as "UFO File: the Hudson Valley Sightings".
The thing is the Lauriolas got 4 years in prison and were ordered to make resititution. You think the Madoffs will get that much time? Or Noel Levine if he's a crook?
Maybe somebody should track down Wendie Lauriola to ask her about Noel Levine's business and his business dealings with Madoff. She might know about foreign bank and real estate holdings.
Would the Lauriolas have to repay money swindled by Levine and Madoff?
January 1, 2009 10:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
MCBill, If Noel Levine did or did not invest cash in the Bank of Greenwich, so what? He became a director in early 2006 before the bank opened for business.
The point is Noel Levine shared an office and a telephone number with Bernie Madoff for years. The fact that Noel Levine is associated with a new bank is noteworthy.
Imo, no one on Wall Street can be considered innocent of economic crime because he or she is known to be a reputable person or comes from a reputable family or worked for a reputable firm or attended reputable schools or gives generously to reputable charities.
I don't have access to Lexis-Nexis and, outside of the Greenwich area, I doubt many CT residents do either. If someone in CT reads about a hedge firm investing in a local bank, he or she should be able to check the names of the hedge fund officers at the CT Secretary of State website, free of charge.
Ordinary people should not have to spend their time jackassing all over the internet to find out what state Plainfield Asset Management LLC is registered in, especially since the company is headquartered in Greenwich.
I have favorite secretary of state corporate database websites. The Florida Secretary of State corporate database should be the national model. New York is one of the worst, if not the worst.
I've noticed the CT Secretary of State has actually cut back on the amount of information it provides on businesses as the amount of hedge fund and other corporate scandal grows.
Very nice that unregulated hedge funds with money from who knows who are investing in regulated banks. That's one way for organized crime to take over a bank, isn't it?
This Leon M. Metzger who is going to testify before Congress teaches a course at NYU on how to become a hedge fund operator. He also testified before Congress in 2001 that hedge funds should not be regulated.
Who is the expert who is going to testify about the mob on Wall Street and how much money organized crime has in hedge funds? Or is there an expert who can demonstrate why hedge funds aren't an attractive investment for crooks?
Why wouldn't the Russians in Brighton Beach launder ill-gotten gains from prostitution, illegal drugs and gun-running through Greenwich CT hedge funds?
Did the folks at Plainfield Asset Management LCC promise the SEC they do extensive background checks on their investors?
Forget David Patrick Colombia at the NY Social Diary. I'm going to write to Jerry Capeci at Gangland News and ask him about what he knows about the mob and hedge funds.
For example, Aniello "Neil" Migliore is still running around NYC making tons of money for the Lucchese family. Migliore is a very, very smart man who made tens of millions in the '60s in the gambling business.
You think Neil Migliore ever heard of the penny stock market and hedge funds?
Despite what one might think looking at the list of "hedge funds experts" who are going to testify before Congress, I doubt the Jews have a lock on the hedge fund racket.
Rep. Paul Kanjorski might want add Jerry Capeci to his expert witness list.
BTW, Sonja Kohn uses an address in Monsey NY for her US investment firm, Eurovaleur. Been following news about Orthodox Jewish financial scandals the last few years? The Jacobwitzes, the Spitzes etc.?
January 1, 2009 11:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Mrs P - you're the one asking the question of how Levine got the money to invest in the bank. And I was simply asking what proof you had that he invested in the first place.
And now you're accusing Plainfield of having ties to organized crime.
And why are you saying that Plainfield is "unregulated". Last time I checked, if you're registered with the SEC that means you're regulated by the SEC.
There's nothing wrong with him becoming a director before the bank opened for business. Of course the company will form a board of directors before they raise enough money to launch the
business.
I'm not saying that people are innocent just because they came from a reputable school, family, etc. but you're all over the map.
If you're really serious with your theories then you should bring them to the SEC rather than on some left-wing political blog.
January 1, 2009 5:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Plus - Mrs P - you're real upset that ordinary people must spend time jackassing across the Internet to find out about Plainfield. If you want to find out about Plainfield you can contact the SEC. If you are a QIB and are looking to give Plainfield you're money to manage, then Plainfield will give you all the information that you want before you make your investment. But other than those two areas - the SEC and contacting Plainfield directly - I'm confused why you need to have other ways to find out about them.
Plainfield's phone number is 203-302-1700 and website is:
http://www.pfam.com/default_dhtml.asp
January 1, 2009 6:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Westport National Bank could be in trouble for acting as custodian of Madoff investments, according to the NY Times.
January 2, 2009 7:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
That's nice and thanks for the link. I read that today. We'll see if there's any signed documentation that says that the couple gave the bank authority to let Madoff manage their money.
But all you do is change the subject. You still think that Plainfield did something shady? You still think that Bank of Greenwich did something shady? Have you brought any of your theories to the SEC?
January 2, 2009 6:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
MCBIll, Please don't comment in my posts anymore.
January 3, 2009 8:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Why won't you answer my questions? Why are you allowed to raise accusations about Plainfield, Bk of Greenwich, etc but I can't respond to them?
January 3, 2009 1:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
McBill, Thanks to Josh Marshall, you can comment about me as much as you want to in in your own TPM blog. Again, please do not comment in my posts anymore.
January 4, 2009 9:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Gosh, while "Middle Class" Bill should comply with your polite request, I can't help but think he doth protest too much. What is he trying to protect?
January 5, 2009 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not trying to protect anything. I just think I should be able to debate the accusations he makes
January 5, 2009 6:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
We regret to report the passing of Richard Sontag; the obit is in today's NY Times
January 12, 2009 10:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks. I'll check it out.
January 15, 2009 8:17 AM | Reply | Permalink