Stanley Chais

Chais was born to a Jewish family{{cite magazine|url=https://forward.com/news/353164/jewish-investors-estate-will-pay-277m-in-bernie-madoff-settlement/

|title=Jewish Investor's Estate Will Pay $277M in Bernie Madoff Settlement|year=2016|magazine=The Forward|accessdate=2019-10-07|quote=Stanley Chais, a once-prominent Jewish philanthropist whose phone number was literally on Madoff's speed dial.}} in the Bronx, New York.Stuart Pfeifer, David Sarno, [http://www.latimes.com/business/la-me-stanley-chais-death,0,3602441.story Stanley Chais dies at 84; money manager invested with Bernard Madoff], The Los Angeles Times, September 27, 2010 He attended Syracuse University, graduating in 1947.[https://books.google.com/books?id=2bk46hx3lsQC&dq=Stanley+Chais+%22syracuse+university%22&pg=PT69 Bernie Madoff, the Wizard of Lies - Diana B. Henriques - Google Books][https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/business/28chais.html "Stanley Chais, 84, Investor Linked to Madoff" - The New York Times]

He was married to Pamela Chais, a playwright and screenwriter. They resided with their three children first in Sands Point, New York, and then in Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, California. After the scandal, they moved to Manhattan, New York.

Chais was an investment advisor, money manager, and philanthropist. He operated "feeder funds" which collected money for funds related to the Madoff investment scandal.{{cite news |

work=The Los Angeles Times |

title=Financial advisor Stanley Chais sued in Bernard Madoff scheme |

url=http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-chais23-2009sep23,0,3042092.story |

date=September 23, 2009 |

author=Pfeifer, Stuart}}[https://www.reuters.com/article/madoff-chais/update-2-accused-madoff-middleman-stanley-chais-dies-idUSN2725688920100927?dbk "Accused Madoff middleman Stanley Chais dies,"] Reuters. He operated three funds that offered returns of up to 25%. He told clients that he achieved the returns using a complex combination of derivatives, stock, currency and futures trading. Instead, the funds were merely funneled into Madoff's Ponzi scheme.

On May 1, 2009, Irving Picard, bankruptcy trustee for Madoff Securities, filed a lawsuit against Stanley Chais.{{cite news |

url=http://documents.nytimes.com/madoff-lawsuit-againt-stanley-chais |

title=Madoff: Lawsuit Against Stanley Chais |

work=New York Times |

date=May 1, 2009 |

author=Attorneys for Irving H. Picard }} The complaint alleged he "knew or should have known" he was deep in a Ponzi scheme when his family investments with Madoff averaged 40% and sometimes soared as high as 300%. It also claimed Chais was a primary beneficiary of the scheme for at least 30 years, allowing his family to withdraw more than $1 billion from their accounts since 1995 - money that properly belonged to Madoff victims. The case number was Picard v. Chais, 09–01172.{{cite news |title=Los Angeles investment manager Stanley Chais sued for funneling cash to Bernie Madoff fund |

author=Standora, Leo |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/05/02/2009-05-02_los_angeles_investment_manager_stanley_chais_sued_for_funneling_cash_to_bernie_m.html |date=May 2, 2009 |work=New York Daily News }} When Chais claimed to be broke, Picard told a judge that Chais should sell his Fifth Avenue New York apartment to pay his legal fees.[http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/oct/28/bernie-madoff-friends-estate-agrees-to-pay-277-mil/ "Bernie Madoff friend’s estate agrees to pay $277 million to end lawsuit,"] The Spokesman-Review. On June 22, 2009, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil fraud charges against Chais.{{cite news |url=https://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/chaiscomplaint20090622.pdf |title=SEC fraud charges against Chais |

work=The Wall Street Journal |date=June 22, 2009}} On September 23, 2009, California Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a lawsuit against Chais seeking $25 million in penalties and restitution for victims. Federal prosecutors had opened a criminal probe into him, but he died in September 2010 before they filed charges against him. His lawyer denied that Chais committed any wrongdoing.

The widow, children, family, and estate of Chais settled with Picard in 2016 for $277 million.[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-madoff-chais-idUSKCN12S1Y1 "Madoff trustee reaches $277 million accord with money manager's family,"] Reuters. On November 19, 2016, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved a global settlement – made in cooperation with the California Attorney General - with the defendants in Picard v. the Estate of Stanley Chais, et al. The agreement was made with the Stanley Chais estate, Chais's widow, children, and a number of other Chais family members, investment funds, trusts, companies, and other entities associated with Chais. Under the terms of the agreement, the BLMIS Customer Fund received $277 million, including a cash payment of $258.47 million, as well as the assignment of other assets that would be liquidated over time. All proceeds of the settlement were to go to the BLMIS Customer Fund for the benefit of BLMIS customers with allowed claims.[https://www.madofftrustee.com/document/dockets/007385-chaisorder09-01172docket157.pdf "ORDER PURSUANT TO SECTION 105(a) OF THE BANKRUPTCY CODE AND RULES 2002 AND 9019 OF THE FEDERAL RULES OF BANKRUPTCY PROCEDURE APPROVING AN AGREEMENT BY AND AMONG THE TRUSTEE AND THE ESTATE OF STANLEY CHAIS AND OTHER DEFENDANTS,"] November 18, 2016. Picard's lawyers said the settlement covered all of Chais’ estate and substantially all of his widow's assets, and represented “a good faith, complete and total compromise.”

Chais founded the Chais Family Foundation, which donated extensively to organizations that preserve and further Jewish history and culture, from reestablishing and maintaining Jewish culture in areas where it was diminished by the Holocaust and by Soviet policy, to Israeli organizations.[http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/a-watershed-moment/#more-1216 "A Watershed Moment"] In Israel, Chais sat on the boards of Technion, the Weizmann Institute, and Hebrew University of Jerusalem.{{cite news |date=February 11, 2009 |title=Israeli nonprofits honor Stanley Chais for years of charity |author=Greenberg, Brad |url=http://www.jewishjournal.com/swindlerslist/item/israeli_nonprofits_honor_stanley_chais_for_years_of_charity_20090211/ |work=Jerusalem Post }} The foundation, which had been funded through the Madoff scam, collapsed in December 2008.{{cite news |url=http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=124664 |work=Jerusalem Post |title=$600 million in Jewish charitable funds lost |author1=Rettig, Haviv |author2=Hoffman, Allison |name-list-style=amp }}

He suffered from profound anemia. Chais died on September 26, 2010, at age 84 in Manhattan, where he and his wife went for treatment of the myelodysplastic syndrome which eventually took his life.[https://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Stanley-Chais-linked-to-Madoff-677137.php "Stanley Chais; linked to Madoff"], Times Union. Accessed May 20, 2024.

{{reflist}}

• [https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2009/comp21096.pdf SEC v. Chais], US District Court Southern District of New York, June 22, 2009
• [https://milberg.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Chais4.pdf "Settlement Agreement"], between Irving Picard and Pamela Chais, et al., October 19, 2016

{{Authority control}}

{{Madoff investment scandal}}

{{2008 economic crisis}}

{{Scams and confidence tricks}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chais, Stanley}}

Category:1926 births

Category:2010 deaths

Category:People from Sands Point, New York

Category:People from Manhattan

Category:People from the Bronx

Category:People from Beverly Hills, California

Category:People from West Hollywood, California

Category:Syracuse University alumni

Category:2008 in economic history

Category:American money managers

Category:Pyramid and Ponzi schemes

Category:Deaths from blood disease

Category:People associated with the Madoff investment scandal

Category:20th-century American philanthropists

Category:21st-century American Jews