A handful of nonprofit organizations in Aspen, Vail and Denver were the recipients of donations from U.S. foundations that invested with accused Ponzi scam artist Bernard Madoff, records show.
Nonprofits across the country are reeling from the Dec. 11 arrest of Madoff since many of them received grants from organizations like the JEHT Foundation, which is ceasing its philanthropic mission and shutting its doors at the end of this month after Madoff drove it broke.
Tax returns and other public data found on the research site Guidestar.org show the Aspen Institute received $108,190 from the JEHT Foundation in 2007, the last available year records are available.
The funds of the donors to the JEHT Foundation, Jeanne Levy-Church and Kenneth Levy-Church, were managed by Madoff. The foundation dedicated itself to justice, equality, human dignity and tolerance.
“The JEHT Foundation Board deeply regrets that the important work that the Foundation has undertaken over the years is ending so abruptly,” JEHT Foundation President Robert Crane said in a prepared statement published on the foundation’s Web site. “Hopefully others will look closely at this work and consider supporting it going forward.”
The Aspen Institute received another $10,000 in fiscal year 2007 from the Valerie and Jeffrey S. Wilpon Foundation, a charity co-founded by Greenwich resident Jeffrey Wilpon, chief operating officer of the New York Mets. The Wilpon foundation is the charitable arm of New York-based Sterling Equities Inc., which reportedly lost millions to Madoff.
Denver-based Nurse-Family Partnership received over $1.08 million from PiCower Foundation — another philanthropic group stung by Madoff.
Bnai Vail, a Jewish congregation that includes 230 families and single households in the Vail Valley, received $5,000 from the Frank Lautenberg Foundation in 2007, according to Guidestar’s database.
The Frank Lautenberg Foundation, which is the namesake of U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), entrusted much of its money with Madoff. The foundation also donated $6,000 to Vail Mountain School in 2007.
Representatives for the Colorado nonprofits could not be reached for immediate comment Sunday. But across the nation there is widespread concern the Madoff scandal is drying up significant sources of revenue that charities and nonprofits depend upon. The legal complications surrounding Madoff’s case could also drag some of them into court.
The arrest of Madoff, who is charged with securities fraud for allegedly running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme that used money from new investors to pay off old ones, sent chills through Aspen where many investors could be wiped out by the disgraced financier.
In addition to nonprofit organizations, it has been estimated anywhere between 50 and 100 investors with Aspen ties have been affected by the implosion of Madoff’s scam, several of them who reportedly have been forced to put their luxurious homes here on the market.
hoop@aspendailynews.com