Pedro Almodóvar caught in Madoff fraud

As we mentioned several days ago, numerous financial firms in Latin America and Europe have suffered embarrassing losses after being caught up in Bernard Madoff’s pyramid scheme. For instance, Chilean brokerage house Celfin Capital SA will have its slim 2008 profits cut in half after its clients invested millions of dollars with Madoff (image).

As the outstanding Guanabee blog noted today, several celebs who did business with the Wall Street huckster have also felt the pinch:

Pedro Almodóvar and his brother Agustin had invested their production company, El Deseo, in Oyster Investments, which was itself invested in one of the funds affected by the Madoff fraud, Lux Invest. So luckily for Almodóvar, his company was only affected tangentially, although significantly. Other casualties from the fallout include Steven Spielberg (who reportedly lost “millions”) and Uma Thurman’s fiancé, businessman Arpad Busson, who lost around 160 million in the fraud.

Image- AFP
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, Guanabee

Madoff scheme costly for LatAm banks

The recently uncovered pyramid scheme run by Wall Street huckster Bernard Madoff has led to massive losses by clients worldwide. Those fooled by his elaborate ruse has included several major European banks, one of the world’s richest women and charities who will be forced to shut down. Despite warnings made as far back as 1999, Madoff’s fraud grew to an estimated worth of over $50 billion.

Among those customers fooled by Madoff and liable to lose a boatload of money is Chilean brokerage house Celfin Capital SA. The investment firm may have its 2008 profits slashed in half and will try to pay back approximately $10 billion to clients tied into the Madoff scheme.

Celfin isn’t the only Latin American firm feeling the pinch over Madoff’s ruse:

Among Latin American companies, Peru’s Credicorp Ltd. said Dec. 16 that it had $1 million invested with Madoff. Peru’s largest financial-services company also had $3.5 million at risk in transactions secured by investments with his Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC firm.

For Celfin, the losses come after the firm fired as much as a 10th of its workforce this quarter amid an economic slowdown stemming from the global credit crunch.

Image- AP
Online Sources- Fox News, The Telegraph, Bloomberg, BBC News