Bernie Madoff: David L. Kugel, Craig Kugel & Peter B. Madoff's Essex Realty Development LLC
Bernie Madoff apparently did not disclose any new sources of cash to the Feds. But what about real estate? If the Feds ever get around to realizing Bernie's brother and thirty-year business partner, Peter B. Madoff, was in on the scam, they might want to take look at his holdings.
Craig Kugel, a long time Madoff employee, is involved in Essex Realty Development LLC, registered in NYS on 12/10/07 to an address at 34 Pheasant Run, Old Westbury. 34 Pheasant Run is one of Peter Madoff's primary residences along with a W. 53rd St apartment and a Palm Beach house.
While much has been made of Ruth Madoff, Bernie's wife, being sole owner of her Palm Beach estate, no one has said anything about Peter and Marion Madoff transferring ownership of their Palm Beach property solely to Marion in 11/06 which is probably when the Madoffs got serious about giving it up.
[Photo removed at the request of Traders Magazine]
This is a photo of Marion Madoff (Peter's wife), David L. Kugel and Craig Kugel at a 4/29/99 Bernard L. Madoff Investment Services LLC client services party. (Traders Magazine)
1/18/09 Update: I knew I shouldn't have lifted the photo from Traders Magazine but I wanted people to look at it for a reason.
Traders Magazine has a lot of photos of the Madoffs and the Madoff staff throughout the years. Here is the link to the one with Marion Madoff and the Kugels.
David Kugel, I believe, is Craig's father. They both live in the same North Shore neighborhood on Long Island and they may be related to the Madoffs.
Madoff Technologies, L.L.C. was registered in NYS in 10/98 in care of Craig Kugel at 885 Third Ave.
In 2003, Craig Kugel was identified in another Trader Magazine photo as being with Primex Trading. Primex was registered as Primex Holdings, L.L.C. in NYS in 10/98. Primex is a joint venture between Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, Goldman Sachs and other brokerage firms and involves a digital trading auction which operates out of Bernie's 18th floor office at 885 Third Ave.
(Why everyone in ther media is so damned sure Primex and every other aspect of Bernie's business was run any more honestly than the investment arm is beyond me.)
More to come.
Craig Kugel owns the domain name, kugel.net. He put robot.txts on all of the web pages in the wayback machine. Why?
He owns 22 other domain names, according to Whois at DomainTools.com.
I wonder what kind of side business Kugel was running through his websites.
January 5, 2009 4:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmm...Cynthia Renee Litman, Craig Kugel's wife, is an entertainment lawyer who worked for New Line Cinema for four years.
Her website, litmanpllc.com. is also blocked by robots.txt in the internet archives.
What are these people hiding?
Per NYS Secretary of State:
CYNTHIA R. LITMAN, ESQ. PLLC
21 SOUNDVIEW LANE
SANDS POINT, NEW YORK, 11050
Initial DOS Filing Date: DECEMBER 03, 2003
County: NASSAU
January 5, 2009 4:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Amazing - because Sands Point is light years from Ozone Park. Much more WASPy. Very Great Gatsby-esque. Although they did film parts of the Godfather there. So it must be connected with Torre's sister.
January 5, 2009 8:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mrs Panstreppon,
I don't see enough evidence for your hypothesis that the Madoff scheme included large numbers of people in the know. That said, I think that you are doing good work mapping out the connections of Madoff associates. Numerous people were duped into passing funds to Madoff to invest. Those people should never be trusted again because they didn't do their homework. Moreover, the regulators also failed. I'd like to see the names of the SEC employees and other auditors who failed to stop this.
January 5, 2009 8:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
My objection is to the fawning media coverage of the Madoff scandal in which Bernie Madoff is cast as the lone gunman who singlehandedly bilked investors out of millions of dollars.
Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC was under investigation by the SEC during 2006. No one in the press has even speculated about who filled out the 2006 SEC form claiming Madoff had 17 or 18 investors who had $17 billion in his various funds.
You think Peter B. Madoff or his daughter, Shana Madoff Swanson, ever bothered to look at the info filed with the SEC in 2006 to see if it was correct?
What about Elizabeth O'Toole, Madoff compliance analyst? O'Toole's career and reputation was at stake but you think she never checked with the SEC to see that it had the correct info about Madoff's operatons on file?
Why do you think Peter and Marion Madoff transferred ownership of their Palm Beach estate to Marion Madoff (singular)in 12/06?
Have you noticed that no one in the press seems to know how many Madoff employees worked on the mysterious 17th floor or how many Madoff employees could have known about the phony trades?
What is particularly aggregious about the Madoff
press coverage is the Wall Street Journal calling Frank Dipascali a Madoff "lieutenant" without the WSJ ever describing Bernie AMadoff as the head of an organized crime family.
Seems like the WSJ has different definition of a what constitutes a Jewish mobster and what constitutes an Italian one.
Me, I've been bitching about Orthodox Jewish organized crime in the TPM Muckraker for at least three years. Before that, I bitched about it in the NY Times Abuzz forum.
But you can't say there is a problem with Orthodox Jewish organized crime in this country because right off the bat, you will be accused of anti-semitism with guys like Mike Bloomberg, Chuck Schumer and Joe Lieberman leading the charge.
BTW, have you noticed Mike, Chuck and Joe have been noticeably quiet about Bernie Madoff?
January 6, 2009 8:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Did you just accuse Bernard Madoff of being the head of an organized crime family (ie a Jewish mobster)?
Nobody in the mainstream media is painting him as a "lone gunman". There are plenty of articles about other people who are involved. For example, the WSJ ran an article which said the SEC is investigating Shana Madoff's role in the fraud.
But the WSJ and other media sources aren't accusing anyone since they can't. And you can't seriously expect the WSJ to accuse Bernie of being part of an organized Jewish crime racket.
PS - as for transferring ownership of the PB house to his wife, this is pretty common for rich people to move assets/property around within the family. It's done for estate tax planning purposes and trying to minimize the "death tax"
January 7, 2009 6:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
MCBill, For the thirteenth time, please don't comment in my posts anymore.
January 8, 2009 8:15 AM | Reply | Permalink