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March 24, 2009 | 8:36 pm

Daphne Merkin minimizes brother’s Madoff connection

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Talk about a gross understatement. In fact, I think we could call this omission willfully deceiving. In Sunday’s New York Times, Daphne Merkin wrote an op-ed about Bernard Madoff and his “co-dependent” casualties. She wrote:

Photo
Daphne Merkin

Given the demonization of Mr. Madoff and the intense sympathy for the plight of those smaller investors who trusted him, it is easy to forget that he actually did bring something to the table. Indeed, what is lost amid the fury of some of those who handed their money over to him is that theirs was a voluntary — nay, eager — association. No one was holding a gun to anyone’s head, saying sign up with Mr. Madoff or else.

Far from it: people scrambled to find a home within his financial orbit, auditioning for the role of Madoff client the way you would try out for a place at an Ivy League college, nudging connections to put in a good word, calling in favors to get in on a piece of the Madoff action. (Although those who were duped are referred to in the press as “victims,” it seems to me it would be more accurate to define them as casualties. Victims are specifically sought out; casualties are an indirect consequence of some larger action.)

Fair enough. I’ve written much of the same. But what about Merkin’s brother, the uber-investor who has been identified as one of Madoff’s primary fund feeders? Merkin includes this parenthetical: “(I did not know Mr. Madoff nor did I invest with his firm, but have a sibling who did business with him.)”

Did business. That makes it sound like Madoff and Ezra Merkin met a few times and talked work over lunch. In fact, New York magazine reported that without Ezra Merkin, the name Madoff would have never eclipsed Ponzi:

Ezra took Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities places Bernie couldn’t have dreamed of going by himself. The list of people and institutions that Ezra Merkin put with Bernie Madoff is a kind of Jewish social register. There was Mort Zuckerman, the media and real-estate mogul, and Ira Rennert, chairman of Fifth Avenue Synagogue and owner of a 68-acre oceanfront Hamptons estate. Over 30 charities invested with Ezra, many of them with a Jewish affiliation. Ramaz was in, as was Yeshiva. Not every investor says they knew that Ezra’s fund Ascot was fully invested with Madoff, an assertion that will be at issue in forthcoming lawsuits.

The two sat on the board of Yeshiva University together, and Merkin made up to $35 million a year from the relationship. NYU is suing Merkin, its moneymanager, for the $24 million it says it lost with Madoff.

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Daphne, the fact that bernie was so polished, so skilled, that people were lining up to have their money stolen makes him no less culpable.  You make it sound like he was sitting back saying, “well, what can i do?  i guess they WANT to have their money stolen.”

Comment by jake on 3/24/09 at 10:58 pm

I am a Madoff Victim. We have a proactive group of over 300 victims that have come together in an effort to find recovery. Together, we offer support and knowledge. This is a secure group that empowers victims to change the system that allowed this fraud to happen and allows them to unite in restitution.
If you are a victim, or know someone who is, please go to:
bernardmadoffvictims.org.
We feel there is strength in numbers and as such, have made contact with many legislators in an effort to get fair and just recovery.
For more information about the group, visit the following websites:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100601125
http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/personal-finance/financial-planning/mad...
http://www.foxbusiness.com/video-search/m/21941880/tax-break-for-madoff-...
http://www.wowowow.com/politics/madoff-victims-come-together-find-justice-or-least-little-relief-232446>
We know that together we will prevail..
Ronnie Sue Ambrosino
Bernardmadoffvictims.org

Comment by Ronnie Sue Ambrosino on 3/25/09 at 2:42 am

The mendacity of Daphne’s article cannot be lost on anyone who calls himself a human being. The trustee, namely her brother and/or Madoff has a FIDUCIARY DUTY to the investor. Based on Daphne’s line of reasoning its okay if a surgeon leaves you to die since you entrusted your life with him.
It is clear that “the brother who was doing business” is she euphemistically states it is Ezra Merkin who was one of the biggest beneficiaries and contributors to the Ponzi Scheme. Nice try by Daphne being her brother’s advocate but it doesn’t work that way.

Comment by david friedlander on 3/25/09 at 2:50 pm

Madoff should be eternally linked with suicide bombers in every country. Instead of traditional explosives, he has used something just as deadly and slain many with instilling hatred and resentments in there hearts. Some have even taken their own lives. He has done much worse than any suicide bomber of the past. The great financial suicide bomber.

Comment by earnest on 3/28/09 at 11:54 pm

Some of these comments are insane. Though I can’t exactly feel what Ronnie and David are feeling, because they apparently lost their life’s savings, but to equate this with a life-and-death situation, or to say He has “slain many with instilling hatred and resentments in their hearts” is a poor comparison. Life and eternal life after this one are far more important than one’s life’s savings. When you take a life you cannot recall that—it is done. You may or may not even be able to repent of that event, depending on your religious persuasion. Madoff, in a manner of thinking, may have sucked all the joy of life out of these people, but why? These people can start over. They can be wiser next time. And where are their hearts? Is it on riches alone. Life is so short, when we are in our seventies and eighties we start realizing this. And maybe some of the casualties or victims are nigh unto death. If so, figure it out. They won’t have much to leave their children, but God doesn’t judge us by what job we had, how much we made, how much we saved to give to our children or to our favorite chairty. It’s how well we lived, how charitable and foregiving we were to others—and usually that has nothing to do with wealth. Yes, I feel badly for all of the victims. It was a terrible thing he did, pre-meditated and callous. But who are we to judge. Our Savior will judge him, and us. Don White

Comment by Don White on 3/29/09 at 10:50 am

Don,
I didn’t state my personal feelings in my comment above and thus you don’t really know them.
I will try to briefly explain what’s in my heart now.
Yes, everything I ever worked for (financially) is gone. Every minute of dedication to every job I had, the profit I made by selling my home that I owned for 27 years (and the improvements I made to it) is gone. I own NOTHING now. I don’t ever see home ownership in my future. I don’t know how I’ll deal with the tootheache that developed last week. I don’t know what I’ll do if I need a new tire on my vehicle.
These are all scary things to a person who was always taught, and always lived by the rules of fiscal responsibility.
Madoff took my money, but he also forced me to look at the environment that allowed that.
The extreme failure and negligence of the SEC, the rule twisting and manipulation of the SIPC, and the inadequate ruling by the IRS (which has been the largest beneficiary of Madoff) have all caused me to realize the huge void we have in our governmental agencies.
The subtle effects of Madoff are larger than the financial. Some effects are good. Friends we haven’t spoken to often enough are reaching out to us. We have united with other victims and new bonds are forming.
I have a newly acquired respect for the media that is supporting our efforts.
However, there are also negative subtle effects. I was hit by a van in NYC the day of the Madoff hearing and my first thought, as I sat in the middle of 57th St was “how am I going to pay for my medical care?”. The fact that my husband (and my best friend) and I are no longer retired and will be forced to be apart for 8+ hours a day causes both of us extreme sadness.
I can go on and on, but I hope I am explaining that the money is gone but the ripple effects of Madoff, The SEC,SIPC, and The IRS go on and on endlessly.
Surprisingly, I never felt anger toward Madoff (not even when he walked into the courtroom, 20 feet away from me). I am, however feeling disappointment in our government and sadness for me and the fact that everything I believed in has been challenged for the last 3 1/2 months.

Ronnie Sue Ambrosino
BernardMadoffVictims.org

Comment by Ronnie Sue Ambrosino on 3/29/09 at 12:35 pm

Daphne Merkin clearly shares her brother’s hideous incapacity for empathy and for taking responsibility (as per Ezra’s one-paragraph note to his investors telling them all their money was gone, as per his taking huge management fees for no work, as per his deception, etc.)Daphne cannot accept that someone in her family was not culpable, wax exploitative, and was stupid—a knave and a dunce at once.  But what is most frightening here is that the New York Times published her piece, knowing full well her brother’s role was grossly understated.

Comment by Lin on 4/06/09 at 11:20 pm

once upon a time on a unique affluent island surrounded by a mote of common islands, lived the observant jewish merkin dynasty. loved by all for their kindess and generosity, they ruled the island for more than a generation. one of the daughters, princess daphne, loved to write about herself and spent hours and hours writing in her journal. one day, the “town crier” offered her the privilege to publicly air her familial grievances.

unwittingly, she appeared to be a caricature of ali macgraw in “goodbye, columbus” by Philip Roth, lacking much confidence and self-esteem. her unresolved royal family issues of a detached father, and a nagging mother, were a work in progress. whatever her shrink in the king’s court brought to the surface, she transferred to pen and paper, airing her dirty laundry for all to know…not unlike woody allen in “manhattan”.

how ever “intolerable” the emperor and emperess were, she had been royally endowed with a substantial inheritance from them to indulge her favorite subject: her self-absorbed and chronic misery, spending endless amounts of money and time over-analyzing her self-perpetuating interpersonal “problems”. only a spoiled princess like herself could sense the pea on the bottom mattress.

“Daphne Merkin’s mini-acknowledgment, worked out with her editors at The Times, raised the old question of how much disclosure a newspaper owes its readers so that they can assess a writer’s connections and motives.”

the inference is that prince ezra must actually be an impersonal “sibling” in her eyes. there is no love lost there. her ambivalence in choosing to stoically name him, rather than being prodded to compromise with an editor, to simply “allude” to him, is obvious: SHE HAS A TERRIBLE RELATIONSHIP WITH HER ROYAL SIBLING, EZRA! if she didn’t, she would have affectionately referred to him as her brilliant and philanthropic “prince of a brother”, trusting his managerial acumen and financial guidance. She would have also mentioned both she and HE were “casualties” of the “royal treasurer”, madoff. but alas, she was never part of her brother’s inner circle of royalty—those who had the “honour and privilege” of bequeathing their inheritances to the man with the “midas touch”.

actually, princess daphne should not be humiliated or embarrassed by her sibling. ezra provided her with a little bit of shalom…

daphne merkin is a negative, self-centered, sad-sack. with all of her fortune, it is long past the time she should have her act together! the Times might make more needed money for their “town crier” with a positive opinion writer in these “worst of Times”.

it appears that the entire family of the “bibical” emperor, hermann merkin needs some new clothes…for ezra, prison stripes for a very long time would be quite satisfactory.

Comment by furtive on 4/14/09 at 1:57 pm

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