Kohn, Madoff scheme and Russian oligarchs

Sonja Kohn made few friends gathering billions for Bernard Madoff from wealthy investors in Russia and across Europe.

Russian oligarchs whose money made up a chunk of the $2.1 billion that Bank Medici invested with Madoff and is now lost.

She said she was a very close friend of Bernie Madoff, and had good connections.
She maintained close ties to the Viennese banking and government elite.

The Austrian banking market is relatively small, and many banks get their growth from Eastern Europe.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/07/business/07medici.php

Suicide by German billionaire, French aristocrat Villehuchet, due to world financial crisis and his loses

German billionaire Adolf Merckle has committed suicide after his business empire, which included interests ranging from pharmaceuticals to cement, ran into trouble in the global financial crisis, his family said Tuesday, lost L 1billion.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090106/
ap_on_bi_ge/eu_germany_obit_merckle

Also, a prominent French financier Magon Villehuchet who had entrusted his fortune and his clients’ money to Madoff was found dead at his office in New York on Dec. 23, 08, an apparent suicide.
His firm, Access International, lost $1.4 billion.
Villehuchet attracted elite investors like Philippe Junot,
the former husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco, and Liliane Bettencourt,
daughter of the founder of the French cosmetics giant L’Oréal,

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/
12/26/thierry-magon-de-la-ville_n_153626.html

Thousands of individuals, including ordinary people and Hollywood celebrities as well as big hedge funds, international banks and charities around the globe, lost money investing with Madoff Ponzi $50 billion scheme.

 Madoff, a former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market was a member of SEC advisory committees.

Clearly, our regulatory system … failed miserably and we must rebuild it now

GMAC bailout

GMAC Financial Services LLC, agreed to take a $5 billion loan from the Treasury Department.

Madoff Ponzi pyramid scheme

In Switzerland, Geneva private banks could lose up to five billion dollars (3.7 billion euros) in the scam, Swiss newspaper Le Temps reported.

Meanwhile Britain’s HSBC declined to comment on a report in the Financial Times that it had potential exposure of 1.5 billion dollars.

Top world financial groups on Monday revealed massive potential losses from an alleged scam run by Wall Street trader Bernard Madoff, admitting they were fooled by a classic pyramid investment fraud.