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Private Foundations and Fiduciary Duty: Five Steps to Avoid the Next Bernie Madoff
Published in Investments & Wealth Monitor, September/October 2009

In June 2009, Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for perpetrating the largest Ponzi scheme in memory. That’s about one year for each of the almost 150 private foundations that had placed significant chunks of their endowments with his firm. Victims include the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, Steven Spielberg’s Wunderkinder Foundation, the New York Mets Foundation, the foundation of Mets owner Jeffrey Wilpon, and the almost $1-billion Picower Foundation, which was forced to close operations in December 2008. How did this happen to such large and well-respected foundations? What is the liability of the foundation managers and investment advisors who turned their money over to Bernie Madoff ? And how do you keep your own or your clients’ foundation endowments safe from similar schemes? Read the article.