the Kozloff Family Charitable TrustWyomissing-based trust may be Madoff victim

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Wyomissing-based trust may be Madoff victim

From our news staff

A locally based charitable foundation appears to be among the victims of the Bernard L. Madoff investment scandal.

According to a list of charitable groups published last week in The New York Times, the Kozloff Family Charitable Trust, Wyomissing, has had as much as $1.8 million in possible losses as a result of investments with Madoff.

At least 15 local organizations received distributions or gifts, ranging from $11,000 to $100, from the Kozloff trust in 2007, according to federal tax documents.

Spokesmen for some of those organizations said they had not been contacted more recently than 2007 by the Kozloff trust; the other organizations declined to comment on contributions due to privacy concerns.

Paul J. Kozloff is listed as the director of the trust on the Internal Revenue Service documents.

Attempts to reach Kozloff were unsuccessful.

The 2007 tax documents list $1.8 million invested by the Kozloff trust in Bernard Madoff Investments.

Data in a chart published with the Times article indicate that the Kozloff trust's possible exposure in the Madoff scandal could be as much as $1.8 million.

Madoff has been accused of costing his investors as much as $50 billion.

News of the scam broke in early December after Madoff allegedly confessed to his two sons that he had been running a gigantic Ponzi scheme.

His higher-profile victims include writer and Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel, filmmaker Steven Spielberg and Banco Santander, the Spanish firm that last week completed its acquisition of Sovereign Bancorp Inc.