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Empire State Carpenters Local Union 747

Syracuse union’s loss could reach $150M
Friday, January 09, 2009
By Charley Hannagan
Staff writer
CNBC, quoting an unnamed source, Thursday reported a carpenters’ union in Syracuse has lost the majority of its $100 million to $150 million in pension money because of investments with Bernard L. Madoff.

An anonymous caller to The Post-Standard last week made the same claim, but it could not be independently confirmed.

Officials from the New York State AFL-CIO said they heard eight unions in the Syracuse area had money invested with Madoff.

So far, the United ociation of Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 267 in Syracuse, United Union of Roofers Waterproofers & Allied Workers Local 195 in Cicero, Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 73 in Oswego and the Empire State Carpenters Fringe Benefit Funds have told members that they lost money in Madoff investments.

J.P. Jeanneret ociates, a Syracuse money management firm, in December said it had money invested with Madoff. According to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Jeanneret had $946 million under management for 92 accounts. More than 75 percent of the firm’s clients are pension and profit-sharing plans, while up to 10 percent in each category are clients who are individuals and high-net-worth individuals, the documents said.

Local unions and Jeanneret have told The Post-Standard that they are trying to figure out the extent of their losses.

Madoff was arrested Dec. 11 after he confessed to his two sons that his investments were actually a $50 billion pyramid scheme. In such schemes, money from later investors is used to pay returns to those who invested first. The list of those who’ve lost money in the scheme includes the wealthy, entertainers, charities and universities.

Madoff is under house arrest in New York, and his company, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, is in bankruptcy.

NY union pensions lost money through Madoff-report

2009-01-08 21:35 (UTC)

NEW YORK, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Three northern New York trade unions have joined the legion of investors that lost money in an alleged $50 billion fraud by Bernard Madoff, The Post Standard of Syracuse, New York, reported on Thursday.

According to the newspaper, local branches of United Union of Roofers Waterproofers & Allied Workers Local 195, Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 73′, and the Empire State Carpenters Fringe Benefit Funds told members they had lost money in the collapse of Madoff’s empire.

Patrick Morin, business manager for the Empire State Carpenters Union, was quoted in the report as saying the pension funds were trying to determine how much had been lost. It said one of the union’s money managers, J.P. Jeanneret ociates of Syracuse, had invested union funds with Madoff.

Morin could not be reached for comment.

Madoff was arrested on Dec. 11 in New York City on a charge of securities fraud after allegedly telling his sons that his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, was ‘a giant Ponzi scheme.’

Authorities have estimated that $50 billion was lost.

The newspaper reported that the carpenters fund trustees had decided to hire a law firm and a litigator to file a lawsuit on behalf of the fund’s participants and that the roofers union had told its members its fund was in ‘critical status.’

The report said that the New York State AFL-CIO believes about eight unions in the Syracuse area have lost money through investments with Madoff.

The plumbers and steamfitters in Syracuse had about $155 million in trust funds, including the pension, health, annuity and general funds, according to the report.

(Reporting by Joseph A. Giannone) Keywords: MADOFF/NYUNIONS

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Talk soon,
Joe Beaven

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