Rye’s Madoff Victim List

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1. After reading various posts here on MyRye concerning the Shew, Otis, Schubert and Hen Island stories, there was one item that caught my eye on an earlier post and I would like to elaborate on it.
   Elie Wiesel is a lifelong hero of mine who survived the death camps of Nazi Germany and went on to dedicate his life to the protection of the Jewish people worldwide. But ultimately it was his trust of Jews that may have been a key reason his charitable foundation closed last month. It turned out that almost all of the foundation’s investments were entrusted to Bernie Madoff who in December confessed to the world that he was a scoundrel of massive proportions. Mr. Madoff, it appears, specifically targeted other Jews and no one was protecting Elie Wiesel.
   Further along this line is an article from The Wall Street Journal by Ronald A. Cass, chairman of the Center for the Rule of Law. It includes the following passages –
   “The Madoff tale is striking in part because it is like stealing from family. Yet frauds that prey on people who share bonds of religion or ethnicity, who travel in the same circles, are quite common. Two years ago the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a warning about “affinity fraud.” The SEC ticked off a series of examples of schemes that were directed at members of a community: Armenian-Americans, Baptist Church members, Jehovah’s Witnesses, African-American church groups, Korean-Americans.
   In each case, the perpetrator relied on the fact that being from the same community provided a reason to trust the sales pitch, to believe it was plausible that someone from the same background would give you a deal that, if offered by someone without such ties, would sound too good to be true.
   The sense of common heritage, of community, also makes it less seemly to ask hard questions. Pressing a fellow parishioner or club member for hard information is like demanding receipts from your aunt — it just doesn’t feel right. Hucksters know that, they play on it, and they count on our trust to make their confidence games work.”
   Now on the local Rye environmental front it appears that in both the Bob Schubert case and the Hen Island case no detailed investigative work was done by the Planning Commission or the Conservation Commission Advisory Council. These boards are staffed by environmentally conscious, independent minded intelligent people. And I’d hazard to say that these people truly trust and admire Mayor Steve Otis whose support put them on these boards. And until recently who could fault them?
   Remember this is a Mayor who takes great pains to be identified with environmental issues and participates in multiple environmental events and discussions. In fact, if you had to identify a public pillar of environmental activism in Westchester County then Steve Otis would fit that bill.
   But in Shew, Schubert and Hen Island something is very wrong. VERY WRONG. It’s time for those who care to get involved – no matter what the Mayor says.

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