|
|
Fred Wilpon, the Mets’ principal owner, tried Friday to temper concerns that he and his team had been scarred financially by the losses caused by a vast Ponzi scheme run by his former friend Bernard L. Madoff. He said he had no intention of selling the team.
“I’m fine, my family’s fine, my business family’s fine,†Wilpon said by telephone from Aspen, Colo., where he was vacationing. His son, Jeff, the team’s chief operating officer, made similar remarks shortly after Madoff’s $65 billion fraud was revealed in December. But Fred Wilpon felt the need to emphasize again that the finances of the team had not been affected.
Although he did not divulge what he, his business, Sterling Equities, or his family had lost — “that’s personal stuff,†he said — he noted that the estimates of the losses were wildly inaccurate and wildly high. One estimate of $700 million was reportedly made to GQ magazine in March by the talk show host Larry King, a friend of Wilpon’s who is also a Madoff victim.
“Larry told me that he never said a specific number, only that it was a vast number,†Wilpon said.
The same figure was used by Erin Arvedlund, author of “Too Good to Be True,†a new book about the Madoff fraud, in an interview with Marketwatch.com on Friday. She predicted that the losses would cause Wilpon to sell the Mets, as soon as 2010.
“It’s a matter of when,†she said.
But Wilpon, who would say only that his Madoff-related investment losses were “significantly†below $700 million, said the Mets were an “emotional asset†that he was not selling. He said he would not sell even to recoup the money stolen by Madoff.
Charlotte Lawyers , Salt Lake City Lawyers
|
|
S.E.C. Report Details Lapses i
