“The Way to make government responsible is to hold them accountable.” These words were spoken by President Obama on Wednesday, January 21, 2009-his first full day in office.
This speaks volumes to me. It says, what I thought all along, that the President ‘gets it’.

The fact that he chose these words on such a momentous day confirms what many former investors with Bernard Madoff have been saying. The government failed to protect us and admittedly the SEC is solely responsible for that failed protection. In a statement released on
December 16, 2008, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said, “I am gravely concerned by the apparent multiple failures over at least a decade to thoroughly investigate these allegations or at any point to seek formal authority to pursue them.”

Imagine how different our lives would be today if the SEC took action in 1992 and properly investigated and stopped Madoff’s fraud at an earlier stage. We’ll never know if those who have lost their homes in the last few weeks would still have a roof over their heads. We’ll never know if the family heirlooms that were pawned in an effort to pay bills would still be in the possession of those that find them priceless treasures. We’ll never know how different the finances of the IRS would be without the excess taxes that were paid on ‘phantom’ income of thousands of taxpaying Madoff investors with millions of dollars of income. We’ll never know if Rene-Thierry Magon de la
Villehuchet would still be alive if the SEC acted appropriately and responsibly.

The fact that Chris Cox and the SEC admitted responsibility and failure in the way it handled the many warnings it received has afforded the victims one less battle to fight. We can accept the SEC’s responsibility and culpability in the Madoff fraud as a given.

That leaves us the resources that we’ll need to fight for restitution from SIPC and the IRS. SIPC was created to “restore funds to investors with assets in the hands of bankrupt and otherwise financially troubled brokerage firms”. It seems like an easy task. However, it took SIPC 25 days to release claim forms to devastated investors.

Investors, who 26 days earlier lived a life style at a level that both Madoff and the SEC allowed to exist. Then, in a matter of minutes, the roof fell in and the rug was pulled out from under us. Many of us were left with nothing. No income, no life savings, no retirement accounts, nothing to reflect many years of hard work and savings. And SIPC took 25 days to get a simple, generic form released.

So, I am asking President Obama to read his own words. Responsibility and accountability are the key words. We know who is responsible-the SEC. Now it’s time to be accountable. I am asking that you, as our President, direct SIPC to act according to its own statute. I am asking that you consider meeting with an educated group of representatives from one of the many large group of Madoff investors and hear our stories. Not the stories of our devastation. I’m sure you’re aware of that. But rather, the stories of our frustrations in trying to deal with our government. The hundreds of letters sent to US Senators and the form letter responses we received (if, indeed we
received any response) that say that the Senators will keep our issues in mind and if they can help in any way, please contact them. We would like to explain that we are not all multimillionaires with bank accounts that can support us while the government decides what roadblocks they can put up to deny claims that we make. We would like you to hear the frustration of the common, taxpaying citizens who have absolutely no way to communicate with our government.

You speak of transparency, and I think this is the ultimate form of transparency. 

I look forward to a timely response in hopes of helping not only myself, but the thousands of victims whose millions of dollars have left a hole in the United States Economy.

This post was submitted by MadoffVictim.