The Bernard Madoff scandal has reached South Carolina.

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The Bernard Madoff scandal has reached South Carolina.
At least seven people or firms with S.C. addresses appeared on a list of several thousand Madoff clients made public this week in a court filing.
The list included the former girls sportswear maker House of Perfection of West Columbia, and Michael and Della Hertzberg of Aiken. Also named were three people in the Charleston area and a couple in Beaufort.
They join the famous figures — including Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax, broadcaster Larry King and World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein — as investors identified with Madoff.
The 162-page list of investors was made public in a court filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. The list does not say how much money they may have lost, nor does it give their connections to Madoff.
Prosecutors say Madoff admits he lost more than $50 billion belonging to investors. Defense lawyers say he has cooperated with authorities to identify assets.
Domenico De Sole, the former chairman and CEO of the Gucci Group who lives in semi-retirement on Hilton Head Island, was among those on the Madoff investor list.
Reached at his island home Thursday, De Sole said funds managed by Madoff appeared legitimate when a financial adviser suggested them in 2003. Madoff, former chairman of the Nasdaq stock market, enjoyed a great reputation in the investment community and promised consistent returns, De Sole said.
“I did some due diligence, and then I invested with him” he said. “It looks like now it was a theft.”
De Sole declined to say how much he invested with Madoff, except that it was “serious money” but only a small portion of his fortune.
De Sole said he doesn’t know Madoff and has had no personal dealings with him.
He said the experience has been unpleasant and shocking, but he said he feels worse for the people, charities and universities that likely took more substantial hits. “My heart goes out to them.”
De Sole filed a claim with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., so he hopes to recover at least some of his money.
Wyn and Frank Knell of Johns Island said Thursday they’re former Madoff clients, not victims.
The Knells, retired from Manhattan, had invested with Madoff’s firm for two decades before deciding to pull all their money out in 2005. “I was getting my quarterly payout,” said Frank Knell, 83. “Bernie never missed a quarter.”
The Knells learned of Madoff through friends who teased them about the couple’s 10 percent investment returns. So without much thought, they switched to Madoff and quickly discovered their friends were right. They remember years when the annual return was between 20 percent and 25 percent.
But by 2005, Frank Knell, a former commodities trader, didn’t like that Madoff’s investment yields had slipped into single digits and decided he could fare better putting the money to work himself. Knell wouldn’t disclose how much he and his wife made during their years as Madoff clients except to say they “made a very good living.”
Efforts to reach people with Midlands-area addresses on the Madoff list were unsuccessful Thursday. Calls to the Hertzbergs were not returned. No one answered the door at the home of Johnnie Neese, whose name was listed with House of Perfection.
Other S.C. Madoff investors declined comment, including: Ronald and Donna Manzo of Beaufort, and Douglas Doan of Charleston.
Efforts to reach Debra Brown of Mount Pleasant, whose name appeared on the list, were unsuccessful.
Contributing were Josh McCann of The (Hilton Head) Island Packet, Katy Stetch and Warren Wise of The (Charleston) Post and Courier, staff writers Kristy Eppley Rupon and Andrew Shain, and The Associated Press.