Toomre Capital Markets LLC ("TCM") has been consumed during the few weeks doing the "real" work of our consulting company — that is serving the needs of our paying clients. As a result, with client projects occupying so much of our working day, we have had little spare time to focus further on the Bernie Madoff fraud scandal. Hence, TCM's postings on this subject have been lighter than usual and the moderated comments have not been addressed as quickly as usual.

Please bear with us as the work crunch continues a bit longer. However, even at this early hour of the morning of Thursday February 5th 2009, TCM would like to highlight two pretty remarkable events that have occurred in the past day with regard to the Bernie Madoff affair. The first concerns the quite amazing and frank testimony of Harry Markopolos in both his written testimony and his oral remarks and answers. How could anyone not admire a man long on the tail of the Bernie Madoff? And how could one not come away with a heady admiration of the way that he thoroughly dissected the regulatory failures that allowed the Madoff affair to thrive for so long?

Mr. Markopolos' written testimony is a must read!!! And in his oral testimony, he stated that there are maybe another dozen Madoff "feeder funds" lying in the weeds not yet willing to disclose their near complete losses? Who might those European funds might be? Toomre Capital Markets LLC intends to return to Mr. Markopolos' testimony in the next few days when there is a bit more free time. In the meantime, definitely read what the mainstream media has to say about the unheard Madoff whistle-blower and his Congressional testimony.

The second item that TCM would like to briefly highlight is the document that AlixPartners LLP, a Dallas company hired as the claims agent by the trustee overseeing the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities. That document was filed in New York federal court on February 4th and contains approximately 13,000 people and/or entities that have thus far been identified as either having had an active account with Bernie Madoff at the time of his arrest or had previously done so. This list of information is truly fascinating!!!

No doubt in the days to come, the reader will witness on this site more social network maps like the first one contained in the TCM's post Visualization of Madoff Securities "Feeder Funds". If one were to take some time to go exploring in this court filing document, one might quickly notice that a number of the Madoff "enablers" and possibly co-conspirators show up all over this document. One might, for instance, go searching for references Madoff's supposed first customer Carl Shapiro and his wife Ruth. Or one might be interested to observe that both Frank Avellino and Michael Bienes show up and with what entities they invested in Madoff's scam.

Alternatively, one might want to look further at where the accounting firm of Sosnik, Bell & Co. or their two principals might show up. The accounting firm of Friehling & Horowitz certainly does multiple times. As does some interesting references to Paul Konigsberg and some chap named Steven Mendelow, one of the group of four individuals who were sanctioned by the SEC back in 1992 when the Madoff investment scam might have been truly discovered.

The above individuals and associated entities are but a few of the social network nodes from which one might begin to more fully examine the participants, enablers and victims of the Bernie Madoff fraud. Without particularly picking on the specific contents of one of this report's many line entries, would it not be enlightening to more fully understand how, if at all, the entry for Fairfield Strategies Ltd (care of one Fred Kolber & Co. ) might be related to say the one for "Fairfield Sentry Limited" or "Fairfield International" and/or "Greenwich Emerald LLC"?

There are many clues in both the Markopolos testimony and in the court filings that will no doubt soon reveal more suspicions and ultimately facts about how Bernie Madoff was able to pull of such a major fraud against so many investors for such a long period. One suspicion is becoming virtually certain: Bernie Madoff did not do this alone as he originally claimed. Just whom assisted him or knew what when remains to be determined.

Has anyone else been surprised by how most, if not all, of Madoff's professional service providers and "feeder fund" leaders all supposedly had significant sums invested in the fraud "fund" and are now "wiped out"? It does seem a bit odd that all of those "enablers" could claim that they never knew anything because they personally were devastated by Madoff's collapse as well.

Call Toomre Capital Markets LLC skeptical, but something about seem right about why virtually all such folks were invested with Madoff supposedly to such a large degree that they now face financial ruin. Was the only significant source of wealth for those service providers Bernie Madoff? Frank Avellino, Michael Bienes, Steven Mendelow and Paul Konigsberg, as examples, all became part of the upper middle class (or much better) during the time that they knew Bernie Madoff well.

Was it just stock market luck that gave some of these individuals the millions to give away? Or was it something else? What was the "vig" that got these relatively small-time accountants to act as "honey pots" to the Madoff investment "bee hive"? As lower middle-class young men, what drove these professionals to recommend Bernie to their clients?

Surely, there must have been something going on with the fees or credits that have not yet come to light. Are we to believe that Bernie Madoff and Ruth Alpert from their earliest days at Far Rockaway High School simply charmed the pants off of everyone? If so, perhaps you might be interested in this really amazingly consistent investment fund that returns about 10-12 percent each year "guaranteed"? Otherwise, you might want to engage the services of a firm like Toomre Capital Markets LLC to check on that alternative investment of some really "great land" in Florida. Perhaps it might be better than some "quick sand" or swamp area that would just decimate the reader's portfolio.

As usual, comments and thoughts are most welcome.