NEW YORK COMPUTER STOLEN 2,200 Madoff investors' identities possibly stolen:


2,200 Madoff investors' identities possibly stolen

September 22, 2009 By ANTHONY M. DESTEFANO anthony.destefano@newsday.com

More than 2,200 Bernard Madoff investors are learning that some of their personal and financial information has potentially been breached after the July theft of a laptop in Dallas, Newsday has learned.

The names, addresses, Social Security numbers and some Madoff account information pertaining to 2,246 investors was contained in a computer stolen from the car of an employee of AlixPartners Llp, the consulting firm that has been processing claims of victims in the Ponzi scheme, a company spokesman said.

But the company said the laptop was password-protected and not targeted but taken in what Dallas police said was a "smash and grab" series of thefts on one night, said the spokesman.

"We have no reason to believe it [investor data] has been comprised," the spokesman said.

However, Madoff investors, already devastated by terrible financial losses, are angered that they are just now learning about the theft in letters sent by AlixPartners through the regular mail.

"So, this happened two months ago and now they are first telling us," said investor Richard Friedman of Long Island. "What are we, fourth-class citizens?"

AlixPartners said it had kept the news of the theft confidential until now at the request of law enforcement officials in Dallas. The company also is offering to pay investors for two years of credit-checking service from a unit of Experian so they can check for potential identity theft. Account information for some investors dating to 1995 was on the computer, the company spokesman said.

Madoff, 71, is serving 150 years in prison after pleading guilty in March to the scam, which investigators said bilked investors of $13 billion to $21 billion.