Jaffe: Madoff Associate Ordered by Court to Attend Interview
Madoff Associate Ordered by Court to Attend Interview
By Christopher Condon
Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Robert Jaffe, a business associate of alleged Ponzi scheme operator Bernard Madoff, was told by a judge to comply with a subpoena to appear before Massachusetts securities investigators.
Jaffe, 64, was ordered by a Suffolk Superior Court judge in Boston to appear for an interview no later than Feb. 6, said Brian McNiff, a spokesman for Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin. Jaffe, a broker-dealer for New York-based Cohmad Securities Corp. and part-owner of the company along with Madoff, has skipped two scheduled sessions with Galvin’s staff.
Jaffe is the son-in-law of Carl Shapiro, 95, a Boston philanthropist who allegedly lost $545 million invested with Madoff. The 70-year-old Madoff was arrested Dec. 11 in New York and charged with one count of securities fraud in connection with running an alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme. He faces as much as 20 years in prison and a $5 million fine if convicted.
“We are going to evaluate today’s ruling and are considering an appeal in this very important issue of fundamental law, that is, extraterritorial jurisdiction,” Jaffe’s attorney, Stanley S. Arkin of Arkin Kaplan in New York, said in an interview. Extraterritorial jurisdiction is the legal ability of a government to exercise authority beyond its normal boundaries.
A Florida resident, Jaffe has also told Massachusetts officials he is being treated for a medical problem and can’t travel.
Jaffe is considered a witness and isn’t under criminal investigation, a state attorney said Jan. 21, the last time he missed an interview.
To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Condon in Boston at ccondon4@bloomberg.net
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