Tufts University loses money on Madoff via Ascot partners

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Institutions throughout Boston say they’re worried about future donations from groups that lost money by investing with Madoff. Several Harvard University-affiliated hospitals, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tufts University, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity and a $40 billion state pension fund were exposed to Madoff through donations or investments.

Tufts said it lost $20 million by investing with Madoff through Ascot Partners LP, the New York fund run by J. Ezra Merkin. Merkin also faces a lawsuit from New York University, which said it had at least $24 million in losses after Merkin and his funds invested with Madoff.

“We knew the economy was in bad shape,” said George McCully, president of the Boston-based Catalogue for Philanthropy, which focuses on donor education. “But to have something like this come along, to have a guy in the for-profit sector cheat and steal others in the philanthropic sector, adds insult to injury.”