Charles Brodzki would rather spend the winter wondering where to find tarpon on Florida Keys flats.

Charles Brodzki would rather spend the winter wondering where to find tarpon on Florida Keys flats.

Instead, the avid angler has joined about 14,000 other victimized investors wondering where disgraced money manager Bernie Madoff put his money.

"I'm as much in shock about this as anyone," said Brodzki, a Montana attorney and former business executive who considers Lower Matecumbe Key his part-time home.

"I really can't understand why he's not in jail," said Brodzki, a Fort Lauderdale native. "He's hurt so many innocent people, not to mention the charities and universities and everything else."

Brodzki is one of two people with Monroe County addresses on the 162-page list of people who lost money in a Madoff investment scheme.

The list was released last week as part of a federal court filing in the case that could involve losses of $50 billion in a Ponzi scheme, where investors are repaid with other investors' money rather than returns.

Attempts to reach the other local investor -- Robert Silbey, a physician listing an Ocean Reef address shared with wife Esther -- weren't successful at press time.

Brodzki described his losses as "significant."

"I never talked to [Madoff], never met him," he said. Even Madoff's assistants "were very resistant to communications."

Brodzki began investing with the Madoff operation years ago on the recommendation of his late father.

"The monthly statements were showing good returns, so why screw with a good thing?" he said. "When you think things are going well, you don't ask questions."

"I wish I had but there was nothing I could have done to discover his wrongdoing," he said. "Even the SEC was unable to find anything."

Brodzki, also a former business executive and consultant, pointed out that Madoff was highly respected on Wall Street and a former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange. "Who can you trust?" he asked.

Investors "are keeping our fingers crossed" that the Securities Investor Protection Corp. may reimburse some of the Madoff losses, he said.

Madoff was arrested Dec. 11 on charges that he created the largest Ponzi scheme in financial history. Norman Braman, the Miami car dealer and owner of the NFL Philadelphia Eagles, was among a slew of notable clients.

"I seriously doubt it was a one-man operation," Brodzki said. "When you think about all the [money] transfers and statements, there's no way he could have done it all himself."

Madoff was highly secretive about his purported formula that produced steady but not outsized returns on investments. He claimed to limit his number of clients, which made investors all the more eager to trust him with their money.

Silbey, a radiologist, has affiliations with the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Elizabeth (N.J.) General Medical Center. The Madoff list includes Silbey as an individual and as agent of a family trust.