We told you earlier that the niece of Bernard Madoff — who’s accused of running a “$50 billion ponzi scheme” through his investment firm — is married to a former top SEC compliance official who had been involved in two reviews of Madoff’s firm. And that Madoff bragged about the family connection last year.
But it’s worth piecing together the extent of what we know about the cozy web of family ties that may have allowed Madoff to escape scrutiny for so long.
CNBC reports that the compliance department of Bernard Madoff’s firm is run by Bernard Madoff’s brother Peter, and by Bernard Madoff’s niece, Shana Madoff Swanson, who’s married to the former SEC official, Eric Swanson. That team appears to also include Bernard Madoff’s son, Mark Madoff, who the Wall Street Journal last week identified as the firm’s senior managing director and chief compliance officer.
The Journal added that Bernard Madoff’s other son, Andrew Madoff is the firm’s director of trading.
And it looks like Mark Madoff and the former SEC official, Eric Swanson, were at least acquainted with each other before Swanson married Mark Madoff’s cousin Shana, and, just as important, before Swanson had left the SEC. Here’s a picture of Mark Madoff and Eric Swanson appearing together on a 2006 panel organized by the Securities Traders Association. Swanson is identified as being with the SEC at the time.
It’s also worth noting that Eric Swanson and Shana Madoff met through their work in that industry trade association, according to Eric Swanson’s current employer. (That spokesman also said that when Swanson participated in an SEC review of Madoff’s firm in 2004, he and Shana Madoff were not in a relationship. They married in 2007.)
And to cap things off, the Journal today reports that investigators are looking into the role that Bernard Madoff’s wife, Ruth, may have played in the alleged scam.
It looks like the all-in-the-family nature of Madoff’s business could have helped him pull off the alleged fraud — at least before his sons fully wised up and decided to tell their lawyer.
Madoff, a former Nasdaq chair, is scheduled for a bond hearing at 2pm today.
