- China: Low US Interest Rates Threaten Recovery
- Hedge Fund Billionaire Paulson Reports New Citi Stake
- White House Plans to Freeze Spending to Cut Deficit
- Cramer: 5 Earnings Reports to Watch Next Week
- Court Rejects 'Clawbacks' for Alleged Stanford Victims
- Cities With the Most Home Price Reductions
- Tax Credit Sparking First-Time Home Sales: Realtors
- Investors Cut Back US Stocks for Bigger Growth Abroad
- This Year's Biggest Thanksgiving Leftover: Cash
- U.S. Stocks Rally for the Second Straight Week
- Dollar is Not Plunging—So 'Calm Down': Market Strategist
- Strategists Say Markets Have More Upside — But How Much?
- Hirschhorn: Risk-Averse Traders
- Roginsky: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Financial Reform
- This Year's Biggest Thanksgiving Leftover: Cash
- TV Series Inks Unique Deal For Fight
- First Time Buyers Rescue Housing: Realtors
- Dollar General Trades Higher After Its IPO
MOST SHARED
- CNBC Video: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - Keeping American Great
- Today's Market Action
- Has Twitter's Finest Hours (Seconds) Come and Gone?
- Microsoft's Bill Gates Praises Apple's Steve Jobs For 'Saving the Company'
- CNBC TRANSCRIPT: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - Keeping America Great
- Inside Wal-Mart's Acai Berry Juice Maker
- Israel Going Green
- China's Role as Lender Alters Dynamics for United States
- Low Interest Rate Investing
Text Size 
Ezra Merkin, the manager of a major Bernard Madoff "feeder fund," resigned effective Friday from his post as chairman of GMAC Financial Services, the financing arm of General Motors [GM
Loading...
()
].
Within and without GMAC, pressure had grown on Merkin to step down since he was connected to the Bernard Madoff scandal, CNBC has learned. Merkin ran one of the funds that handed money over to Madoff, who is alleged to have run a $50 billion ponzi scheme that has ruined many investors.
At least one entity that is believed to have lost millions as a result of the Madoff scandal, New York University, has said it was unaware that Merkin was investing its money with Madoff.
GMAC put out a press release pointing out that Merkin's resignation is in accordance with an order from the U.S. Federal Reserve System's Board of Govenors granting GMAC's application to become a bank holding company. The order lets GMAC participate in the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program.
"I am pleased that GMAC has successfully completed its conversion to a bank holding company and look forward to GMAC's accomplishing its goals," Merkin said.
Lenard Tessler, managing director and co-head of private equity at Cerberus Capital Management will replace Merkin during transition to the new board, which must be reconstituted no later than March 24 per Fed order.
The vacant board seat will be filled by Jeffrey L. Lomasky, chief financial officer of Cerberus.
GMAC's new seven-member board will consist of the GMAC chief executive officer, one representative from FIM Holdings, two directors appointed by a trust to be formed by U.S. Department of the Treasury, and three independent directors elected by the aforementioned directors.
Print
Email
- Warren Buffett and Bill Gates spoke to Columbia students, and Buffett made the students a startling offer.
- For the chief of cable company Comcast, growth has been about making deals – generally very large deals.
- Some companies may start using insurance to shift carbon risk from their balance sheets to maybe... yours?
- The president and founder of Genesis Today wants to improve America’s health, and thinks Wal-Mart can help.
- Switzerland's privacy watchdog is taking legal action to force Google to make changes to its Street View service.
- A wealthy, distracted Texas driver crashed his million-dollar Bugatti Veyron sports car into a salt marsh, say police.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes