J. Ezra Merkin, the financier who handed more than $2 billion of his clients' money over to Bernie Madoff

J. Ezra Merkin is accused of pouring $2.4 billion in client money into Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme without investors’ permission. Cuomo’s complaint says Merkin paid himself $470 million in fees.Last December, after Madoff’s fraud was exposed, Tufts University reported its $20 million loss.The university made the investment in 2005 after its investment office recommended one of Merkin’s three hedge funds, university spokeswoman Kim Thurler said.The school has since determined that its investment office “acted properly and completed its normal due diligence procedures,” before recommending the Merkin fund, Thurler wrote in an email.At this point, Tufts isn’t sure if it will sue Merkin, but another Merkin investor with local ties has decided to take him to court.Mort Zuckerman, chairman of Boston Properties Inc. and publisher of the New York Daily News, yesterday sued Merkin, alleging fraud and negligence.Zuckerman has said he lost $40 million that he invested with Merkin.In past interviews, Merkin has denied any knowledge of Madoff’s scheme and his lawyer, Andrew Levander, who could not be reached for comment, has denied that the money was handed over to Madoff without investors’ knowledge.Madoff was convicted last month of using his firm to run the biggest Ponzi scheme in history. He is awaiting sentencing and faces up to 150 years in prison.

J. Ezra Merkin, the financier who handed more than $2 billion of his clients' money over to Bernie Madoff, has been sued by the New York attorney general. The New York Times employs Merkin's sister.Which is not something you'd find out by reading the NYT's story on the matter. It does a great job explaining how Andrew Cuomo just filed a civil suit against Merkin alleging "fraud and deception," for collecting $470 million in fees just for handing billions over to Madoff. But it doesn't say anything about Daphne Merkin, J. Ezra's sister, who's a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine. And who wrote a piece on Madoff with a grossly inadequate disclosure just last month!When Daphne wrote her breezy op-ed about how Madoff's victims aren't really victims, the totality of her disclosure was a parenthetical statement that "I did not know Mr. Madoff nor did I invest with his firm, but have a sibling who did business with him." That pissed off lots of people, including the Times' public editor. But since then, the paper has not appended any more disclosure to the piece, nor have they run any sort of correction, apparently.