Local woman loses life savings to Madoff

Bernie Madoff is a former stock broker and investment advisor who was sentenced to 150 years in prison after pleading guilty to the largest financial crime in history. He bilked an estimated 20-thousand investors out of approximately $64-billion dollars while running a Ponzi scheme.

Madoff’s scheme was far-reaching it’s estimated that thousands of investors lived in Southern California and dozens resided right here in the Coachella Valley. Tonight in an exclusive interview, News Channel 3’s Karen Devine spoke with a local woman who lost her life savings to Madoff, making life in her golden years incredibly tough.

82 year old La Quinta resident Sandy Blake invested $300,000 with Bernie Madoff in the late 1990’s. She was a successful interior designer who wanted to make her earnings work for her to ensure a smooth retirement and guarantee the life style she was accustomed to.

“My lifestyle has changed dramatically! I used to travel a lot, and I can’t travel anymore, there’s no money to travel. And, I used to entertain a lot and have friends over for nice dinner parties and I can’t do that anymore either it’s too expensive,” says Blake.

Blake admits investing with Madoff in the beginning had it’s perks. She says she was getting a 20 percent return on her money and was able to do some incredible things for herself and her children with the earnings. She was able to put the down payment on a home for one of her sons, buy a truck for her other son and purchase her home in La Quinta with money earned on her Madoff investment.

When Blake got the news that Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme and he was to be brought up on criminal charges she flat out didn’t believe it. She says, the man she had delt with for 15 years was smart, kind and caring and kept up his promise, sending monthly statements and quarterly dividends. She had no reason to believe the former chairman of NASDAQ was a crook.

Blake says she would have a few choice words for Madoff if she were given the opportunity to confront him.

“I would say to him, you’re a schmuck that’s what i would say, because he could have been, as wealthy as he was, he could have stayed that way, if he wouldn’t have gotten himself into the Ponzi scheme.”

When blake realized her retirement money was gone she says she worked even harder and socked away as much money as she could but at her age it’s been tough and she relies on her social security check to pay the bills.

When asked if she has any regrets investing with Madoff Blake responded, “In reflection, I would say I should have been smart enough to know that it was too good to be true. And, I wasn’t. And, if I had realized that it could possibly be a Ponzi scheme then I would not have gone into it.”

The government has recovered $11 billion dollars after liquidating Madoff’s assets and bank accounts. Some victims who invested under $1.1 million dollars will be paid back in full. Sandy Blake says she’s not on that list and doesn’t expect a check. And, while lawyers attempt to figure out how the money will be distributed, they’ve pocketed nearly $800-million dollars cleaning up Madoff’s mess.