An affinity fraud is one in which a member of a religious or ethnic group, works over members of that same group. It can be a church or high school booster club. At the Scottsdale, Arizona based real estate and litigation law firm of William A. Miller we have seen this happen over and over again. In the Madoff fraud, it was the Jewish community. Investigators dug through financial records at Bernard Madoff’s investment firm as the list of victims of his alleged Ponzi scheme widened to include real-estate magnate Mortimer Zuckerman, the foundation of Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, Sen. Frank Lautenberg and a charity of movie director Steven Spielberg. Talk about the powerful.

The Madoff scandal reverberated around the world, with banks including Spain’s Grupo Santander and France’s BNP Paribas saying on Sunday that their clients and shareholders together face billions of euros of losses. At the Miller law firm in Phoenix, Arizona we often tell even well heeled clients to remember what your dad told you, ‘if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.’

 

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