According to the news, investors who suffered losses due to Madoff’s fraudulent business practices and who paid taxes on phantom gains will be able to reclaim some of that tax money from the government (as is just and fair).
Reading the USA Today article I came to this:
“Investors in some of these cases are entitled to a “theft loss” deduction, not subject to the limits on normal capital losses from investments, according to the IRS guidelines, Shulman testified at a Senate Finance Committee hearing.”
Now I don’t know yet what the “theft loss” deduction includes, or how it’s worded but it sounds like a possibility to check if it would cover the scamming done by the AIG executives (and I’m not saying that they’re all guilty of either out and out plotting or mere incompetency in letting the company accrue such losses) under a class action suit either by investors or by the public under the umbrella of the U.S. government. Words that are tangled into secure knots are never easily, but always eventually capable of being unraveled.
I sure wish I had access to all the records in the Bernie Madoff case, and this is why I’m so interested in it–because obviously I’m neither an investor or one who cares what’s going on with someone else’s money–because I just love a good mystery that involves figures and accounting. And of course, boats and diamonds and mansions are interesting too. Because of my anal nature, my meticulous methods and tenaciousness to leave no stone unturned and no penny turned into an adjusting entry, I’ll betcha I could find almost all of the 65 billion he stole. And for a cool 1% finders fee, I’d absolutely love to do it.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology