If you missed Frontline's television special, "The Madoff Affair" last week, it is available online. The website has lots of docs and other nifty info, too.

If nothing else, watch the Michael S. Bienes and Sanda L. Manzke interviews which are available online here and here. The two feeder fund operators are perfectly in sync on one point: They did what Bernie told them to do.

Sandra Manzke's Maxam Capital Management reportedly lost $300 million in the fraud. As former CEO of Tremont Capital Management, Manzke had placed at least $1.7 of the $3.1 billion lost by Tremont's Rye Group before she left the firm in April 2005. 

According to MarketWatch, Manzke was a director of Kingate Global Fund since its founding in 1990. (Kingate paid management fees to Tremont through at least 1999 and probably longer (see below). Kingate had all of its funds invested in BMIS and reported losses were $3.3 billion.

Combines losses of hedge funds associated with Manzke:
Maxam Capital Mangement (Darien CT) - $300 million
Tremont Capital Management (Rye NY) - $3.1 billion
Kingate Global Fund (BVI) - $3.3 billion
Total: $6.7 billion 

Timeline:
1984 - Founds Tremont Capital Management
1990 or earlier - Kingate Global founded and invests in BMIS. Manzke appointed director.Tremont oversees a portion of the funds.
1992 - Tremont Capital becomes public company
1992?- Tremont begins investing in BMIS (based on Manzke's claim she met Bernie in the early '90s) 
2001: Mass Mutual, through Oppenheim Funds, buys Tremont for $100 million
2005: Hedge Fund Reviews announced Manzke's departure from Tremont on April 8. On the same day, Manzke becomes embroiled in a legal issue in Palm Beach County.
2005: Founds Maxam Capital Management
2008: Reports $300 milion in losses and is "wiped out" after Madoff fraud is exposed.

Manzke told Frontline that she first met Bernie Madoff in the early '90s. But the MarketWatch article places Manzke at the founding of Kingate in 1990 which invested with Bernie from its inception.

I don't know if the agreement between Kingate and Tremont remained in place after Mass Mutual acquired Tremont in 2001. It is possible, too, that Manzke took some or all of the business with her when she left Tremont in 2005. 

Maxam reported having $1 billion under management in its latest investment advisor disclosure statement filed with the SEC on 1/9/2009. A portion of the $1 billion may relate to fees paid by Kingate Global Fund.

Sandra Manzke appears to have played a far bigger role in Bernie's business than has previously been reported. If she only met Bernie in the early '90s as she claims, someone else made the arrangements with Bernie to set up Kingate as a customer.

Too bad Frontline didn't ask Manzke about Kingate and when it began doing business with Bernie. Maybe someone else in the media could ask Manzke some follow up questions.   

In the Frontline interview, Manzke claimed she didn't know how big Madoff's operations had become, implying that she would have acted differently if she had. Given that Manzke probably knew Fairfield Greenwich Group had several billion dollars invested with Bernie, one is left to wonder what threshold would triggered a different response and what exactly she would have done.