(Updated 9/6/09 to include reference to 6/24/92 SEC memorandum.)

In June 1992, several customers of an investment firm known as Avellino & Bienes approached the SEC conveying concerns about investments they had made. - SEC Executive Summary of Madoff Investigation

After receiving the information from the Avellino & Bienes' customers, the then-Acting Enforcement Branch Chief and former New York Enforcement Staff Attorney contacted Frank Avellino. Former New York Enforcement Staff Attorney June 24, 1992 Memorandum, at p. 1, at Exhibit 1. - SEC OIG Report on Madoff Investigation

Name:COHN, DELAIRE & MADOFF, INC.
Status:DISSOLUTION BY PROCLAMATION
Date of Status:06-24-1992
- Madoff Corporate Registrations

CIVIL DOCKET FOR CASE #: 1:92-cv-08314-JES
11/18/19921 ORDER, sealing case ( signed by Judge Kenneth Conboy )
- SEC vs. Avellino & Bienes, 1992

Cohn, Delaire & Madoff, Inc. was voluntarily dissolved on June 24, 1992. On the same day, an SEC staff attorney issued a memorandum about the status of a preliminary investigation into Avellino & Bienes. The investigation was opened after investors filed complaints about A&B in June 1992 or earlier.

No one has publicly disclosed the business purpose of Cohn, Delaire & Madoff but it sure looks like someone was in a hurry to shut it down after the SEC became interested in A&B.

According to the SEC OIG's report, the June 24,1992 memorandum refers to contact with Frank Avellino about the nature of A&B's investment business. Avellino probably told Bernie that he had heard from the SEC and, for some reason, Cohn, Delaire & Madoff, Inc. had to disappear.

Cohn Delaire & Madoff may have been another feeder fund, given its June 1986 registration date. At least two or more feeder funds were registered around the same time period. Telfran Associates Corp. was registered in late December 1982, Cohmad Securities Corporation was registered in February 1985. Another possible feeder fund, SJK Investors Inc., was registered in January 1985.  

"Cohn" is very likely Maurice J. "Sonny" Cohn and "Delaire" is very likely Alvin J. Delaire, Jr.  Cohn was a principal and Delaire was an agent of Cohmad. Both men are the target of a lawsuit filed by the Madoff bankruptcy trustee who is suing to recover millions of dollars in commissions that Bernie paid Cohmad agents. Cohn and his daughter, Marcia, have been charged with fraud by the SEC.

If "Madoff" is Bernie's brother, Peter, and Cohn, Delaire & Madoff was a feeder fund, Peter's involvment in the investment advisory business was more hands on than what has been publicly disclosed to date. If the SEC gave Peter a pass, the SEC comes off looking guilty of more than just incompetence.

Peter Madoff was elected vice-chairman of NASD in November 1992

The records in the Avellino & Bienes case should be unsealed. Why they were sealed in the first place is enough cause for concern.