Attorney General Recuses Self from Madoff Probe

US Attorney General Michael Mukasey has recused himself from the Department of Justice probe into the Madoff investment scandal. Mukasey’s son, Marc Mukasey, a partner at Bracewell & Giuliani, is representing Frank DiPascali, a top financial officer at Madoff Investment Securities.

Congress will also investigate the alleged $50 billion pyramid scheme run by Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff.

Democratic Representative Paul Kanjorski (D-PA), chairman of the House Financial Services subcommittee on capital markets, will convene a congressional inquiry early next month to examine the alleged fraud and to determine why the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators “failed to detect these substantial evasions.”

The planned congressional inquiry follows a stunning rebuke that SEC Chairman Christopher Cox leveled against his agency’s career regulators, blaming them for a decade-long failure to investigate Madoff and for failing to detect one of the largest pyramid scams ever.

In other news, New York Southern District Magistrate Judge Gabriel Gorenstein has set new conditions for Madoff’s bail, including an ankle-monitoring bracelet and a curfew that will require him to be in his Park Avenue apartment from 7 pm to 9 am. The magistrate judge also ordered Madoff and his wife, Ruth, to surrender their passports.

• Madoff Charged in $50 Billion-with-a-”B” Fraud, Sued by SEC [UPDATE]
• Law Firm Hirings & Firings
• Disbarred Attorney Caught in Madoff Web
• Paul Weiss Enjoys Solid 2008
• 8,000 Claims in Madoff Fiasco?

Posted by Erik Even on December 18, 2008. Filed under Legal News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry