The real estate investment firm Sterling Equities, co-founded by New York Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, had money invested with Bernard Madoff’s firm, CNBC has confirmed.
“Among our various investments, we have accounts managed by Madoff Securities,” the company said, in a statement. “We are shocked by recent events and, like all investors, will continue to monitor the situation.”
Madoff had $17 billion in his investment advisory firm last month, but the 70-year-old former NASDAQ chairman told his employees earlier this week that he had actually lost $50 billion in what he said was a ponzi scheme. Madoff told authorities that he “paid investors with money that wasn’t there.”
It’s believed Madoff and the Mets owners have been connected for at least 20 years. Records show that Madoff first rented space at 885 Third Avenue in Manhattan, also known as “The Lipstick Building,” in 1989. While Sterling Equities has since sold its stake of the building, Madoff Investment Securities was still based there.
The question now is how much money was invested? If we’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars, which is not out of the question, you’d have to think it could affect the Mets ability to further itself this off-season beyond the pitching moves they’ve already made.
Update: CNBC's David Faber is now reporting that Wilpon and Katz, though their investment entity Sterling Equities, could have lost as much as $300 million with Madoff.
- Madoff's Alleged $50 Billion Fraud Hits Other Investors
- The Red Flags In the Madoff Fund's Past
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