I personally didn’t lose money in the Bernard Madoff multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme however if you are one of those who did, my heart goes out to you. It’s a good bet that you’re hurting with thoughts of Madoff experiencing a slow and painful death. I mean…you are human…right?

Now, adding insult to the injury already done, you discover that seventeen years ago, federal investigators questioned for the first time whether Bernard L. Madoff was connected to a Ponzi scheme.

SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO!!! Seventeen years ago Bernard Madoff could have been stopped and a lot of the damage could have been minimized.

So what happened? Well, it has recently come to light that an inquiry was conducted centered on Frank Avellino, an accountant who had been funneling investors to Mr. Madoff since the 1960s.

The investigators did not get far. Within days, Mr. Avellino agreed to return to investors the money he and his partner had raised and to pay a small fine to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The inquiry petered out, and Mr. Avellino, represented in the case by attorney Ira Lee Sorkin, kept sending money to Mr. Madoff.

Now if you’ve been following the Madoff affair the name, Ira Lee Sorkin, might ring a bell. Oh yea…that’s right, he is the same guy that’s now representing the one and only Bernie Made off…..seventeen years later!

Anybody seeing any red flags here?

Now, it appears that questions have, once again, arisen about the ties between Mr. Madoff and Mr. Avellino. A lawsuit claims that Mr. Avellino warned his housekeeper, who had invested with him, that her money was lost 10 days before Mr. Madoff’s fraud became public.

Now how did he know that? A hunch, perhaps?

Through his new lawyer, a former federal prosecutor, Mr. Avellino declined to comment on his relationship with Mr. Madoff.

But archived court documents from the 1992 case reveal numerous red flags that raise questions about the S.E.C.’s failure to examine Mr. Avellino and Mr. Madoff long before Mr. Madoff’s apparent Ponzi scheme spread worldwide. The documents show that Mr. Avellino and Michael Bienes, his business partner, kept almost no records at Avellino & Bienes, a firm that oversaw $440 million. When court-appointed auditors asked Mr. Avellino to prepare a balance sheet, he responded that “my experience has taught me to not commit any figures to scrutiny.”

What king of f**king answer is that? ……and he probably said it with a straight face!

Subsequently, Mr. Sorkin and Mr. Avellino managed to curtail the audit, even though a federal judge eventually concluded that Mr. Avellino had not been a credible witness in the case.

Curtailed the audit? Sounds like money may have changed hands…what do you think…..

The S.E.C. also took at face value Mr. Avellino’s depiction of the deal he offered investors, which guaranteed returns of up to 20 percent a year while requiring him and Mr. Bienes to make up any shortfalls.

It is unclear whether commission investigators even discussed the case with Mr. Madoff. His name does not appear in the agency’s complaint, which referred only to an unnamed broker.

Now, either the government lawyers who handled the case are either extremely stupid or extremely corrupt…..or both!

They’re all in private practice beginning with Richard Walker who was head of the S.E.C.’s New York office, now working as general counsel of Deutsche Bank. Then there’s the lead lawyer on the case, Kathryn Ashburgh, who now works from her home in McLean, Va. Lastly there’s Keith W. Miller, who was a senior lawyer in the New York office, and is now a partner at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker.

Through a spokesman, Mr. Walker declined to comment on the case. Mr. Miller and Ms. Ashburgh did not return calls. WHAT A SHOCKER!

Mr. Avellino is also choosing to be mum of the whole affair  and is not responding to calls or visits to his homes in Nantucket, Mass.; Palm Beach, Fla.; and New York, or to messages left with his son Joseph Avellino in Chester, N.J. Gary Woodfield, the former federal prosecutor who represents Mr. Avellino, also declined to comment. Francis B. Brogan, a longtime lawyer for Mr. Avellino and a partner at Greenberg Traurig in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., asked that questions be e-mailed to him, then did not respond.

EDITORIAL NOTE: There is much more to this story, however, I can’t stomach it any further at this time. It actually sickens me! Especially the fact that all of these Motherf**kers could….and should have gone to jail 17 YEARS AGO!