In today’s Aspen Daily News, the front page article alleges an estimated 50-100 Aspen investors, possibly as many Aspenites as Palm Beachers, have been affected by the Madoff/Wall St investment fraud...
Excerpt: With their cash evaporated, some local Madoff victims are expected to sell their Aspen homes and other assets. A source within the local real estate industry said as many as a dozen high-end homes are expected to go on the market as a direct result of the Madoff scandal, and that some were already being shopped around in tony areas like Red Mountain and the West End. “For people who had an appreciable amount of their money invested [with Madoff], it’s going to change their lifestyle,” said Obermeyer the wealth manager, “and that might require downsizing everything, including where they live.”The confluence of the currently anemic real estate market and the immediate need for Madoff victims to acquire cash-in-hand may lead to mansions being sold for relative cut-rates and at a loss for their owners, sources say. Madoff victims do have legal avenues to recover their losses — including an already-filed class action suit — but none are as expedient as unloading assets. It potentially will accelerate a decline in values, particularly in high-end homes,” Bantis said. “My feeling is that some folks will have to sell their homes — and at a price you would not normally see.” Aspen Daily News, Link to article
The story was also covered on the front page by the Aspen Times. See that article
A major New York Times piece starts to connect the social and geographic “affinity groups” that brought all these amazingly talented, successful, smart and wealthy investors into Madoffs orbit. Link to article
