Did you hear about the New York real estate broker who transferred over $83 billion in and out of his account with Bernie Madoff, in just 3 years - 1998 to 2001?   By comparison, all other Madoff clients moved only about $19 billion. 

According to a letter, dated 1/24, from the SIPC to a New Jersey Congressman, Norman Levy - otherwise described as a "surrogate father" to Bernie Madoff - conducted suspicious transactions with Madoff’s firm "most often and in the largest dollar amount" during that 3-year span. 

    JPMorgan Asleep at Switch?   According to trustee Irving Picard, that alone should have alerted JPMorgan Chase to the Ponzi scheme.  Mr. Picard filed a complaint last week against the bank, demanding $6.4 billion for its role in managing Madoff’s main account.  Mr. Levy died in 2005 at age 93.  Mr. Picard claims that JPMorgan was aware of "what appeared to be a check- kiting scheme" in December 2001 between Madoff and that customer. 

The client, identified only as "Customer 1," also engaged in "suspicious loan activity" involving Customer 1 and another longtime Madoff friend, according to the complaint, which was unsealed last week.  Picard settled with the estate and family of Norman Levy last year for $220 million, the amount of money Levy and they allegedly profited from their accounts.

    Family's Response.  "I am troubled that Mr. Picard did not disclose the key role that Norman Levy played in financing the Ponzi scheme when he sought the court’s approval of the settlement with the Levy family," said lawyer Helen Davis Chaitman, who's representing hundreds of Madoff victims.  Cary Lerman, a lawyer who represented the Levy family in the settlement with Picard, said Levy was one of Madoff’s victims.  Madoff, 72, whom Levy had named as an executor of his estate, stole $250 million from it, using the money to fund his fraud, Lerman said. Levy and the estate lost an additional $200 million of principal in the fraud, he said.

For further details, go to:  Bloomberg, 2/11, "Madoff 'Surrogate Father' Moved..."]