Madoff, Sy Syms, J.Ezra Merkin and how the "Madoff" money was funneled to Israel - Definitive thread

[MikeWB]

1: The bank that funneled the money:

Israel Discount Bank of New York fined for violations of anti-money laundering laws

http://www.fincen.gov/news_room/ea/file ... enalty.pdf

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

FINANCIAL CRIMES ENFORCEMENT NETWORK
IN THE MATTER OF:
ISRAEL DISCOUNT BANK OF NEW YORK
NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Number 2006-7

ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL MONEY PENALTY

I. INTRODUCTION

Under the authority of the Bank Secrecy Act and regulations issued pursuant to that Act, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has determined that grounds exist to assess a civil money penalty against Israel Discount Bank of New York ("Israel Discount Bank" or "the Bank"). To resolve this matter, and only for that purpose. Israel Discount Bank has entered into a CONSENT TO THE ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL MONEY PENALTY ("CONSENT"), without admitting or denying the determinations by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, as described in Sections III and IV below, except as to jurisdiction in Section II below, which is admitted.

The CONSENT is incorporated into this ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL MONEY PENALTY ("ASSESSMENT") by this reference.

II. JURISDICTION

Israel Discount Bank is an insured state chartered nonmember bank that is the U.S. subsidiary of Israel Discount Bank Ltd., a financial institution based in Israel. ... ==

http://www.fincen.gov/news_room/nr/html/20061031.html

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the New York State Banking Department (NYSBD) today announced the assessment of civil money penalties of $12 million against Israel Discount Bank of New York for violations of federal and state anti-money laundering laws and regulations. This is in addition to the $8.5 million already paid to the New York District Attorney's Office pursuant to an agreement reached with the bank in December 2005. Israel Discount Bank of New York, without admitting or denying the allegations, consented to payment of the civil money penalties.

In taking these actions, FinCEN, FDIC, and NYSBD determined that Israel Discount Bank of New York failed to implement an adequate Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering program, with internal controls and appropriate measures to detect and report money laundering and other suspicious activity in a timely manner. The agencies found that the deficiencies in the Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering program included failure to establish appropriate, specific due diligence policies, procedures and controls reasonably designed to detect and report instances of money laundering through its correspondent accounts for non-U.S. persons, as required by section 312 of the USA PATRIOT Act and its implementing regulations.

"This joint civil money penalty is an example of extremely effective collaboration among federal and state agencies," said FDIC Chairman Sheila C. Bair. "The significant penalty assessed in this case emphasizes the importance for banks of having strong internal controls to assure compliance with anti-money laundering regulations and to detect and report potential money laundering or other illicit financial activities."

"I am very pleased we were able to reach a settlement in this case," said New York State Superintendent of Banks, Diana L. Taylor. "The size of the settlement should serve as a reminder to all financial institutions that detecting and reporting violations of Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering regulations is necessary if we are to keep our financial system free from fraud and abuse."

"To be effective in combating illicit finance, federal and state agencies depend on our partners in the banking industry," noted FinCEN Director Robert W. Werner. "A solid anti-money laundering program not only enables banks to protect themselves, but also serves to generate information on illegal activity that can be used for investigative and regulatory purposes. When a program is deficient we have lost valuable data that may have been crucial to the protection of other institutions and individuals."

2: Enablers - #1 Sy Syms

y Syms is Chairman of the Board of Israel Discount Bank of New York - Forbes.com

Sy Syms Profile - Forbes.com

http://people.forbes.com/profile/sy-syms/76055

Sy Syms
Chairman of the Board/Director
Syms Corporation
Secaucus ,  NJ
Sector: SERVICES  /  Apparel Stores

82 Years Old
SY SYMS has been Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of the Company since its inception in 1959. Mr. Syms was Chief Operating Officer of the Company from 1983 to 1984. Mr. Syms has been a Director of Israel Discount Bank of New York since December 1991. On January 22, 1998, Mr. Syms resigned from his position as Chief Executive Officer. Since that date, Mr. Syms has been Chairman of the Board. Mr. Syms is Marcy Syms" father. ...

Enabler #2: J Ezra Merkin:

Orthodox leader J.Ezra Merkin quits too; served with Madoff on board of Yeshiva University

 http://www.forward.com/articles/14749/

Merkin Seen as Enabler for Madoff

By Marc Perelman
Thu. Dec 18, 2008

PHILANTHROPY AND POLITICS: Philanthropy for Israel enabled J.Ezra Merkin (right) to rub shoulders with Israeli leaders Ariel Sharon (left) and Ehud Olmert.

J. Ezra Merkin, the scion of a prominent family known for its generous support of Modern Orthodoxy, has emerged as a key link between a constellation of Orthodox institutions and Bernard Madoff, the Jewish financier now under house arrest for masterminding an alleged $50 billion fraud.

Merkin and Madoff served together on the board of Yeshiva University, where Merkin was chair of the investment committee and Madoff was treasurer and chair of the Sy Syms School of Business. Both quit when the scandal broke.

Merkin, whose father, Hermann, gave millions to build Y.U., the Fifth Avenue Synagogue and Merkin Concert Hall, said he also personally "suffered major losses from this catastrophe," as he wrote to investors in his $1.8 billion fund, Ascot Partners. But some of his clients describe him as an irresponsible enabler, contending that he did not inform them that all of Ascot's money was invested exclusively in Madoff's portfolio — and that Merkin even lied about the arrangement.

"Every single investor that I have talked to says that they had no idea Merkin was giving the money to Madoff," Harry Susman, a Texas lawyer working with several investors in the Ascot fund, told the Forward. "Some tell more explicit stories, including having asked Merkin the question directly and being told that he was not doing this."

Merkin's lawyer, Andrew Levander, strongly disputed the claims, stressing that the Ascot offering documents provided to investors "expressly named Madoff Securities as a prime broker for the fund in several places and accurately described Ascot's trading strategy." He added that his client regularly consulted with Madoff and reviewed the trades supposedly executed for him by Madoff for 20 years. "Nonetheless, to our great horror and Mr. Merkin's huge personal loss, it now appears that those discussions and those trade tickets were a sham," he said.

The University that they used to hide the transactions:

Yeshiva University - Sy Syms School of Business, "personal ethics"

Yeshiva University

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshiva_University

Yeshiva University is a private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel. Founded in 1886, it is a leading research institution, ranked 50th in the United States among national universities in 2008.[2].

Yeshiva University's undergraduate schools—Yeshiva College, Stern College for Women, and Sy Syms School of Business—offer a unique dual curriculum inspired by the Modern Orthodox Judaism philosophy of Torah Umadda—meaning "Torah and secular studies"—"combining the finest, contemporary academic education with the timeless teachings of Torah."[3]

Yeshiva University's Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, and other graduate and professional schools promote a "dual emphasis on professional excellence and personal ethics."[4]

Yeshiva University is an independent institution chartered by New York State. It is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and by several professional agencies.[5]

Finally, Bollyn has some info:

Who is Bernard Madoff, the man behind the $50 billion fraud?

Written by Christopher Bollyn

Friday, 12 December 2008

http://www.bollyn.info/home/articles/91 ... -surfaces/

FRAUDSTER'S PARTNER IS DIRECTOR OF ISRAELI MONEY-LAUNDERING BANK IN NEW YORK
- SO, WHERE DID THE MONEY GO?

Zionist treasurer faces miniscule fine and jail

"It's all just one big lie."
- Bernard Madoff to his sons about his $50 billion "Ponzi" scheme

{photo caption} Fraudster Bernard L. Madoff was national treasurer of the American Jewish Congress and Yeshiva University (YU).  His business partner at YU was Sy Syms, the long-standing director of Israel Discount Bank of New York, a bank charged for laundering billions of dollars in 2005.  So where did the $50 billion go? {end}

If a string of similar crimes are committed in the same city by a gang of close associates from the same ethnic group with the same extremist political ideology, one would naturally think there could be a connection.  This is precisely the case with the huge financial frauds that have struck New York investment banks, insurance companies, and hedge funds.  All of the key players in the current financial crisis are Zionist Jews from a very small political/ethnic community in New York City.  But don't expect CNN or the New York Times to fill you in on the details -- the owners of these institutions are part of the same "community."

I have been pointing out the Zionist connections in 9-11 for more than 7 years and the same connections behind the current financial crisis since September.  I have been accused of being an anti-Semite because of my research.  For American Zionists and "philo-Semites" who genuflect at the word "Jew" it seems that pointing out the Zionist Jew behind a crime is actually worse that the commission of the crime itself.   Indoctrinated by the Zionist-controlled mass media, most Americans are simply unaware that all of the key players in 9-11 and the current financial crisis come from a very small club, i.e. the Zionist Jewish criminal gang in the United States and their comrades in Israel.  The Zionist criminal network is global.

The latest massive financial scandal is the giant $50 billion pyramid or "Ponzi" scheme run by a New York Zionist Jew, Bernard Lawrence Madoff.   Madoff was chairman of the Syms business school at Yeshiva University with his partner, Sy Merns, a.k.a. Sy Syms, who has been a director at Israel Discount Bank (IDB) since 1991.  The IDB bank is well known for its money laundering business.

SYMS AND THE ISRAEL DISCOUNT BANK

The IDB is the Israeli bank at the center of the 9-11 funding matrix connected to the Bronfman family and Israeli military intelligence.  IDB is the Israeli financial institution at the center of the Zionist crimocracy.  (See: "The Architecture of Terror: Mapping the Israeli Network Behind 9-11," especially the section on Joseph Ciechanover, the former chairman of IDB's New York branch.)

On January 31, 2006, a controlling interest in the Bank was acquired by an investor group led by Matthew Bronfman and Rubin Schron.  The deal gave Bronfman ownership of IDB's wholly owned subsidiary, the Israel Discount Bank of New York. Bronfman is a younger brother of Edgar Bronfman Jr., chairman and CEO of Warner Music Group Corp.

{photo caption} Matthew Bronfman (left) is the chairman of the board of the World Jewish Congress.  He is the son of Edgar M. Bronfman (center), former president of the WJC.  Here the Bronfmans stand with the newly elected president of the WJC, Ronald S. Lauder, after the Zionist organization known for corruption and financial irregularities held elections in New York, 10 June 2007. {end}

The Bronfman-Schron group paid $300 million for a 26% stake, with an option on a further 25%, in IDB.  Regulators approved the transfer after the bank agreed to pay $25 million to settle a money-laundering probe of its New York unit by the Manhattan District Attorney and the New York State Banking Department.  On Dec. 17, 2005, the New York Times reported that some $2.2 billion of illegal funds had been transmitted from Brazil through the IDB in New York (IDBNY) -- but that was just the tip of the iceberg.

ISRAELI BANK LAUNDERED TENS OF BILLIONS

The Jerusalem Post reported on November 2, 2006, that the scale of money-laundering going on at the Israeli bank was much, much larger than the Brazil case reported in the New York Times.  The Post reported that U.S. regulators fined the Israel Discount Bank of New York $12 million for violating federal and state laws designed to thwart money laundering.  The Israeli bank now controlled by the Bronfmans had failed to set up an adequate program to identify and report money laundering, according to federal and state regulators. A "substantial" part of $35.4 billion in third-party wire transfers during the year ended March 2005 showed traits common to laundering operations, the complaint said.

So, how did Madoff lose $50 thousand million?  How does $50 billion vanish?  Did it disappear to Israel through the Israel Discount Bank?

While Madoff has said that he acted alone in orchestrating the fraud, this is seen as very unlikely. There was probably a very sophisticated team working on wire transfers to secret bank accounts, perhaps at Israel Discount Bank's Swiss branch, which opened in Switzerland in 2000.  (The very building Madoff carried out his fraud from, the so-called "lipstick building" in Manhattan, is itself Israeli owned.  Like Bronfman's partner Rubin Schron, Israeli companies have been aggressively acquiring commercial real estate in the United States -- but where does their capital come from?  Israel, after all, is a recipient of billions of dollars in financial aid from the U.S. taxpayer every year.)

{photo caption} The Lipstick Building:  Madoff rented three floors in this Israeli-owned tower in Manhattan.  He, however, "worked" on a separate floor with a small team that used a computer system that was not connected to the rest of the company network. {end}

John Coffee, a professor at Columbia Law School, said: "It is very rare that a fraud of this proportion could be handled by just one man. There are trades and redemptions to be done that a 70-year-old man would have to work 20 hours a day to do."

Madoff told two "senior employees," i.e. his sons, Mark and Andrew, at his apartment the night before his arrest that the Madoff hedge fund and his investment advisory business was "basically, a giant Ponzi scheme," according to court documents.  His investment fund business was insolvent, and had been for years.

Thursday morning, December 11, at 8:30, FBI agent Theodore Cacioppi confronted Mr. Madoff. "We're here to find out if there's an innocent explanation," the agent said.

"There is no innocent explanation," Madoff said, saying he traded and lost money for institutional clients. He said he "paid investors with money that wasn't there" and expected to go to jail.

Many of Madoff's victims were fellow Jews looking for consistent returns on their investment, which his "Ponzi" scheme had been able to provide until a large number of investors tried to withdraw some $7 billion worth of funds in November.  As the Wall Street Journal reported:

News of money manager Bernard Madoff's alleged fraud sent shock waves through upscale communities in the New York area and Florida where wealthy individuals had entrusted billions of dollars to Mr. Madoff for decades.  Ira Roth, a New Jersey resident, who says his family has about $1 million invested through Mr. Madoff's firm, is "in a state of panic."

"This is going to kill so many people," said a current investor in Mr. Madoff's fund. "It's absolutely awful."

...Many of his clients knew Mr. Madoff personally but had little understanding of his investment strategy, which reported remarkably consistent returns of some 1% per month. They often referred to it as a "black box."

Madoff also allegedly said that the losses from the fraud were at least $50 billion, according to the criminal complaint. He told his sons that he was "finished," and that he had "absolutely nothing" and "it's all just one big lie."

WHERE DID THE MONEY GO?

So who is Bernard L. Madoff?  Apart from running his "investment company" and being a former chairman and director of the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASDAQ), Madoff is a very committed Jewish Zionist who has served as the treasurer of two leading Zionist organizations.  Madoff is just like Richard Fuld of Lehman Brothers, Sanford Weill of Citibank, and Maurice Greenberg of A.I.G., the major culprits behind the $2 trillion bail-out.

Madoff is another New York Zionist Jew, whose grandparents and parents immigrated to the United States in the 1900s from the hotbed of Zionism in the primitive and backwards Pale of Settlement (today's Byelorussia, Poland, and Lithuania). Madoff is another Zionist "Russian" Jew who has committed a massive financial fraud and cheated Americans and others out of untold billions of dollars.

{photo caption} Madoff at Yeshiva University's (YU) 79th Hanukkah dinner, from the left:  Bernard L. Madoff, YU's treasurer and chairman, Syms School; Sy Syms, vice chairman, Board of Trustees; and Josh S. Weston, chairman of Boys Town Jerusalem foundation.  It should be noted that Sy Syms has long been a director of the Israel Discount Bank, a scandal plagued Israeli bank based in Tel Aviv. {end}

Sy Syms has been a Director of Israel Discount Bank of New York since December 1991.  The Israeli bank's 2004 annual report shows Syms (standing third from left) with the other directors of the bank.  The tall one in the back is Lt. Colonel (res.) Giora Offer, president & CEO of Israel Discount Bank.  He has also been the chairman of the board of directors of Israel Discount Bank (Switzerland) Ltd. since March 2001, according to the website of IDB. The Israelis who ran IDB are (sitting) Arie Mientkavich, then chairman of both IDB and IDBNY, and Arie Sheer, general manager of IDBNY.  The New York bank has long been the IDB's main source of profit.

Madoff is a former national treasurer of the American Jewish Congress (AJC) of New York City, one of the major Zionist organizations.  Founded by the Hungarian Zionist rabbi Stephen S. Wise, the AJC claims to be "the first Jewish Defense Agency to support the establishment of a Jewish state" and to boycott Germany in the 1930s.  In 1936 the American Jewish Congress was instrumental in establishing the World Jewish Congress (WJC).  Wise, president of the AJC, was also elected president of the WJC. Wise was a Zionist who had been trained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, where Michael Chertoff's rabbi father and grandfather, both noted Talmudic scholars, studied and taught.

Madoff is (now was) also the treasurer of Yeshiva University, a private Jewish university in New York City, where he is chairman of the board of the university's business school, the Sy Syms School of Business, which he has endowed with large donations, from his "Ponzi" scheme no doubt.

Madoff has been a member of Yeshiva University's Board of Trustees since 1996, and was elected chairman of the board of Syms School of Business in 2000. (Yeshiva University is clearly trying to erase traces of Madoff from their website, but the cached versions remain.)

At Syms, where Madoff is the chairman of the board, "Jewish tradition provides the framework for consideration of ethical issues, an integral part of the student's education." Does the "Jewish tradition" taught at Yeshiva U. support giant "Ponzi" schemes like the one run by their chairman?  Is this the kind of business they teach the students at Syms?  Cheat the "goyim," i.e. non-Jews, and steal their money?

That is exactly what the Talmud teaches, make no mistake about it.  The racist nature of the Talmud, and how this Jewish supremacism has manifested itself in different societies, is the main reason that Jews have been despised and expelled from so many nations throughout history.  (For an scholarly interpretation of the anti-Christian content of the Talmud see: Israel Shahak, Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years, 1994)

Anyone familiar with the teachings of the Talmud, i.e. "Jewish tradition," will know that such anti-Christian schemes are at the heart of such a Talmudic, i.e. Jewish supremacist, "education."  This is why so many of the financial criminals involved in the current Zionist-produced "credit crisis" are Jewish Zionists who have been indoctrinated in such "Jewish traditions."  The Zionist criminals involved in 9-11 and the cover-up of the truth are all tied to the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, which is a similar Talmudic yeshiva and Zionist indoctrination center.

Like the Israel Discount Bank, which has a branch in New York, Yeshiva University has a branch in Israel, as does the American Jewish Congress.  Madoff has been the main treasurer of both Zionist institutions during the period he ran his giant "Ponzi" scheme.  If Madoff has lost billions of dollars, as is alleged, these institutions should certainly be investigated as possible recipients of stolen money.  Israel Discount Bank should be thoroughly investigated for its role in money laundering and criminal operations, like 9-11.

The Zionist criminal structure relies on its tax-exempt "religious" network of schools and charities.  These institutions are the frame of the Zionist criminal and racist network and should be investigated and closed if they are found to be teaching racist ideologies.  Jewish racism is no different than any other racism and should not be tolerated in a free and democratic society like America.

Finis