NEWS
New York farm owner hard hit in Madoff scheme
Posted: Friday, December 19, 2008 11:00 AM
by Paul Post
The owner of a prominent Saratoga, New York, area Thoroughbred farm, Stone Bridge Farm, is apparently one of the hardest-hit victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s alleged $50-billion Ponzi scheme.
Stone Bridge owner Jeffrey Tucker is a founding partner of Fairfield Greenwich Group that invested $7.5-billion, more than half its $14.1-billion in managed assets in vehicles connected to Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities.
That is the largest investment by any one entity.
Madoff was arrested on December 11 after he allegedly confessed to conducting a large Ponzi scheme, named for 1920s scam artist Charles Ponzi. A Ponzi scheme is an investment operation that involves paying high returns to investors out of money paid in by subsequent investors, rather than from profit from any business.
In July 2007, Stone Bridge installed New York state’s first-ever Polytrack, a synthetic racing surface designed to promote equine safety. The material is part of the farm’s seven-furlong training track in Gansevoort, New York, about 15 miles from Saratoga Race Course.
Tucker has invested millions there in recent years with new barns and state-of-the art training equipment. The site provides an alternative to stabling horses at the track, where space is at a premium during Saratoga’s six-week summer meet.
In addition to Stone Bridge, Tucker owns a farm in Chatham, New York, where retired racehorses are boarded.
Fairfield Greenwich was founded in 1983. On its website, the firm told investors, “We are currently assessing the extent of potential losses and will pursue on behalf of our investors the recovery of all assets associated with our accounts related to Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities (BLM). BLM is in federal receivership and federal authorities are pursuing their case against Mr. Madoff and BLM. We are seeking to gather all facts, work diligently with counsel to determine the appropriate course of action toward recovery, and stand ready to assist the authorities with their investigation.”
Tucker could not immediately be reached for comment.
However, in a statement distributed by PR Newswire, he said, “We have worked with Madoff for nearly 20 years, investing alongside our clients. We had no indication that we and many other firms and private investors were the victims of such a highly sophisticated, massive fraudulent scheme.”
The website FT.com (Financial Times) reported Thursday that Fairfield may sue PricewaterhouseCoopers, its own accounting firm, for failing to detect the fraud.
Paul Post is a New York-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent
