Sheryl Weinstein - Madoff's Other Secret

New memoir uncovers alleged 20 year Madoff affair

As recipient of a Really Bad Boss Lifetime Achievement Award, and possibly the worst money manager in the history of money managers, Bernie Madoff is a frequent target topic at Really Bad Boss (see Really bad boss rule#55:  When you’re in charge of managing people’s money and you steal it, you’re not allowed to keep it.) So we were hardly able to contain ourselves when we learned through the Associated Press that Bernie Madoff allegedly carried on a 20 year affair with one of his victims.  Talk about screwing someone over. 

Sheryl Weinstein apparently found Bernie Madoff irresistible in more ways than one.  In her newly released memoir “Madoff’s Other Secrets: Love, Money, Bernie and Me,”  Weinstein claims the two met at a business event while she was chief financial officer for Hadassah, a charitable women’s organization that also lost money to Madoff’s scheme.  While with the organization, Weinstein had a role in investment decisions.  Which begs the question, did Weinstein’s relationship with Madoff influence her, and thereby the organization’s decision to invest with the disgraced financier?  Better yet, how much of an influence did the relationship have and did it blind her to the truth about Madoff?  It certainly blinded Ruth Madoff.  Not only is she still claiming ignorance with regard to her husband’s crimes, but through her attorney she’s claiming to know nothing about the “alleged affair.” 

Weinstein, who’s been married for 37 years, says she had to sell her Manhattan home and that her investment losses have ruined her family.  I imagine the revelation of the affair also had something to do with the ruining the family part.  No doubt Weinstein releasing her book is an attempt to make up for some of the financial losses she suffered at the hands of Bernie Madoff.  And while we feel sympathy for those losses, she loses quite a few points for carrying on a 20 year affair with a criminal – a married criminal. Her story serves as a precautionary tale, reminding us that when you lie with dogs, you get fleas.

Barbara McKinzie in wax

Proving that men don’t own the market on really bad bosses, Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority national president and former Chicago Housing Authority comptroller Barbara McKinzie has amassed a long list of really bad behavior that’s raised the ire of sorority members nationwide.  Among the things McKinzie is accused of doing:

• Commissioning a $900,000 wax figure of herself
• Taking almost $400,000 of organization funds for personal expenses
•  Arranging for a $4,000 monthly personal stipend to be paid after she leaves office
• Using the group’s American Express card to buy designer clothing, lingerie and jewelry, then redeeming points to get among other things, a 46-inch HDTV for personal use.

In her defense, McKinzie says she’s done nothing wrong and that the accusations are retaliation against her for enforcing the organization’s stringent financial standards.  She says the wax statue in question along with that of AKA’s first national president, Nellie Quander, cost a total of $45,000 and that the statues are being prepped for display at the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore. 

Members are now suing to oust McKinzie for misappropriation of funds. And, despite her denials, it’ll be pretty hard to refute evidence of misusing the credit cards.  If the accusations are true, it makes you wonder how well she managed finances as Chicago’s Housing Authority comptroller. I smell an investigation. Members have had issues with AKA and it’s leadership for years, questioning membership dues, registration fees and McKinzie’s compensation.  But, this is one of the few times the discord has made it to the national stage.

$900,000 wax statues, excessive personal expenses and misappropriation of organization funds are a serious betrayal of trust to the organizations’ 50,000 active members, and fly in the face of AKA’s ideals of sisterhood, ethics and service.  Thoughts?

Get more details on McKinzie and the Chicago chapter’s fight to have her ousted here.

Stewart Heath

You pull a gun on your employee…after he confronts you…for giving him a bad check.  Last Friday the pressures of a mounting FBI investigation and a $1.1 million judgment against him for questionable real estate dealings, got the best of  Stewart Heath, CEO of Equity Reality Estate.  After two days of FBI agents hauling boxes out of his office and a confrontation with an employee about a bounced payroll check, Heath pulled a gun on the employee.  The employee managed to get out of the building and call 911 from the parking lot. When the police arrived, they were able to talk Heath into surrendering.   Heath was arrested and charged with aggravated assault.

We’re accustomed to stories  about employees seeking revenge on bad bosses. And we’re all for calling employers out when they do things like pimping out employees and bouncing payroll checks. But perhaps getting into a shouting match with your embattled CEO on the same day FBI agents removed boxes of evidence from his office isn’t the best timing.   When dealing with a really bad boss, choose your battles and your timing, wisely.

Source: NewsChannel5

Seattle bank teller fired after chasing and catching bank robber

Jim Nicholson, 30, was fired a day after running down a would-be robber who entered a Key Bank branch near the Seattle Center.  The bank, like most banks, has a strict policy outlining appropriate teller behavior in the event of a bank robbery.  Tellers are trained to get bank robbers out the door quickly and comply with requests unless they feel their lives are in jeopardy. Nicholson not only ran after the criminal in question, but caught him and held him down until the police arrived.  For his part, Nicholson says he understands why he was fired, but says instinct took over.  Was the firing the act of a really bad boss or a company concerned with deterring renegade behavior among bank employees?  You make the call. Discuss after the jump.

Source:  Associated Press

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Rabbis, Assemblymen and mayors oh my…

44 arrested in NJ probe (Louis Lanzano/Associated Press)

Last Thursday the floodgates opened and in the fragrant state we call NJ, over 44 people – in charge in some form or another of other people – were arrested in connection with a sweeping corruption and money laundering probe.  Included in the arrests were:

• 5 rabbis
• 3 mayors
• a host of assemblymen
• fire inspectors
• and a partridge in a pear tree. 

There is so much wrong with this picture, I don’t know where to start.  From illegal fundraising, to knock-off Gucci bags to black market kidneys – yes black market kidneys –  this thing runs the gamut. See a list of some of the Really Bad Boss wannabees and their crimes here.

Update:  Charges against the partridge were eventually dropped.

Inmate no. 61727-054 aka Bernie Madoff

Our friend, and Really Bad Boss Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Bernie Madoff, arrived at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina today yesterday. There, Madoff begins serving his 150-year sentence for masterminding a billion-dollar Ponzi scheme.  His new digs include bunk beds, a toilet and a sink. Madoff will get a daily 15 minute phone privilege, which he’ll no doubt use to call Ruth and reminisce about the good old days of stealing people’s money.

Herb Hoelter, CEO of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, a group that aims to influence sentencing of criminals, says that Madoff’s 150 year sentence will give him street cred in prison.  Ironic now that Madoff’s in prison he finally gets the respect of his true peers, fellow criminals.

Source: CBS News