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Madoff CFO, Frank DiPascali, Singing Like a Canary

By Larry Doyle on August 11, 2009 at 8:00 AM in Bernie Madoff, Economy, Sense on Cents (Larry Doyle blog)

Frank DiPascali, CFO for Bernie Madoff, is widely expected to plead guilty today. DiPascali has waived his right to be indicted by a grand jury in a sign that he is looking to cut the best deal possible.

How high a pitch and how many tunes will investigators receive from the canary known as Frank DiPascali? Do you think there are a whole host of people not sleeping very well lately wondering what notes Mr. DiPascali may reach?

Who might some of these people be?

1. Walter Noel: head of Madoff’s largest feeder fund, Fairfield Greenwich.

2. Sandra Manzke: formerly headed Tremont Advisors, another large feeder fund. Manzke left Tremont in 2006 and launched a money management firm Maxam.

3. Andrew and Mark Madoff: Bernie’s sons ran the Madoff broker-dealer operation.

4. Peter Madoff: Bernie’s brother and general counsel.

5. Shana Madoff and husband Eric Swanson: Shana, Bernie’s niece, married former SEC lawyer Swanson in 2007. Swanson was with the SEC for ten years prior to departing in 2006. Ms. Madoff served on a committee at the Wall Street regulator FINRA.

6. Robert Jaffe: vice-president of Cohmad Securities. Jaffe was instrumental in signing up a multitude of investors with Madoff.

7. Sonny and Marcia Cohn: this father-daughter team owned Cohmad Securities, which was physically located within the same space as Madoff’s operations.

8. Certain large Madoff investors with whom DiPascali had regular contact. How much did they know?

9. Who were the regulators from FINRA and the SEC responsible for monitoring the Madoff operation? Are they nervous as well? Will investigators dare to pursue this angle?

Obviously, if any of these individuals (and any others) are implicated by DiPascali, they are entitled to due process.

I would love to see Mr. Harry Markopolos reintroduced into this equation. Mr. Markopolos clearly knew the inner workings of the Madoff operation. Will investigators have the courage to engage him and expose the shortcomings in our regulatory oversight?

No stone should be left unturned!!

LD