Madoff and the Sorkin Affair

Investigation Shines a Harsh Light on the Conduct of Madoff's Lawyer in a Prior Ponzi Scheme Case


by Pam Martens
Global Research, March 10, 2009
CounterPunch - 2009-03-09


Growing questions are being asked by legal scholars and Wall Street veterans over the background role that Bernard Madoff’s attorney, Ira Lee Sorkin, played in 1992 that may have resulted in Madoff looting investors for an additional 16 years. That question now takes on heightened urgency as Sorkin negotiates a plea deal for Madoff that would avoid the antiseptic sunshine of an open courtroom trial.

The 1992 episode was troubling enough but a search of court records shows Sorkin and his former law firm of 20 years, Squadron Ellenoff, were targets of more serious charges in one of the largest Ponzi schemes of the 1990s, Towers Financial Corporation, run by Ponzi mastermind Steven Hoffenberg.

Steven Hoffenberg’s heist involved $462.5 million, which in 1994 the SEC called “one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history.â€