"Meanwhile, Mr. Picard said in court filings Friday that he would depose Sandra Manzke, the principal of Maxam Capital Management LCC, which channeled client money to the Madoff firm, on June 17. He said he could seek to recover nearly $100 million from Maxam. Lawyers for Maxam didn't respond to requests for comment." 6/12/2009 Wall Street Journal, Amir Efrati

(The court filings referred have been redacted on PACER and are not currently available to the general public.) 

On 12/13/2008, the WSJ reported that Maxam redeemed $30 million in November 2008. Now $100 million of Maxam money is in question and Picard made a point of letting everyone know it. Why? 

After Bernie was arrested, Sandra Manzke-Platt (nee Mehner) announced she was "wiped out" implying that she personally had suffered a substantial loss. As far as I know, no one in the press ever questioned what her fellow directors on the Maxam board lost, if anything.

In addition to Maxam employees who served as managing directors, the other members control or are directly linked to Pequot Capital Management, the hedge fund that is closing down because it has been accused of insider trading by the SEC in a very controversial case.

Arthur Samberg is the chairman of Pequot Capital Management and Peter Dartley, Dartley Family Limited Partnership, is vice-chairman. Campfire Family LLC is headed by Jeffrey  Samberg, Arthur Samberg's son.

The Sambergs and Dartley became members of Maxam Capital Management in November 2005. 

Presumably, the Pequot Capital crowd became involved in Maxam because they had invested in Maxam funds or otherwise backed Manzke.

On 1/9/2009, Maxam Capital reported that it had $1 billion of funds under control on Form ADV submitted to the SEC. $243 million of that held in the Maxam Absolute Return Fund was reportedly lost in the Madoff swindle.

Some of the other funds under Maxam control were:

$100 million fund for the Seattle Transit Union. 

An unspecified allocation from the Chrysler Corp.Retirement System.

Maxima Alpha Bomaral and Maxima Alpha Strategy Funds, based in Jersey in the Channel Islands. Deutsche Bank marketed 5 year 2.5x leveraged certificates in the two funds as described in a prospectus.

Matrix Money Management announced in 2007 that MAXAM would manage its new fund.

Maxam announced in 11/2005 that it would market three investable hedge fund indices. According to the press release, Maxam had $1.3 billion under management at the time.

The Miles/MAXAM Deep Value Managers Fund Ltd. was registered in the Cayman Islands and was under the control of Reid R. Miles, CEO of Miles Howland LLC. According to SEC filings, the fund was promoted by Sandra Manzke. Whether this fund invested in BMIS is not clear.

Given Sandra Manzke's close ties to Tremont Capital and the Kingate Global Funds which together had more than $6 billion invested in BMIS, her actions are undoubtedly being very closely scrutinized by the Feds.