Ira Sorkin
Encyclopedia
Ira Lee Sorkin is an American attorney. He is best known for representing Bernard Madoff
, the American businessman who has pleaded guilty to perpetrating the largest investor fraud ever committed by a single person.
in 1961. He was president of his senior class, starting center on the football team and the star shot-put of the track and field
team. He received his B.A.
from Tulane University
in 1965 and his J.D.
from The George Washington University Law School in 1968.
Sorkin is currently a member of Lowenstein Sandler, a New Jersey based law firm. He was partner at Dickstein Shapiro
, a large American law firm. He was a summer intern in the federal prosecutor's office in Manhattan
in 1967. He spent three years as a staff lawyer in the New York office of the Securities and Exchange Commission and five years as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan
. He returned to the S.E.C. in May 1984–86 as its New York regional administrator. In 1976, he became a defense attorney.
One of his first private clients was Rupert Murdoch
in the law firm of Howard Squadron, Theodore Ellenoff and Stanley Plesant. When the firm was sold, he joined Dickstein Shapiro. On November 8, 2010, Mr. Sorkin left Dickstein Shapiro along with four other lawyers to join New Jersey based law firm Lowenstein Sandler as a partner.
Sorkin defended Monzer al-Kassar
, a Syria
n convicted in November 2008 of supplying arms to undercover agents posing as anti-American terrorists.
, and the firm's pension
account, including about $19,000 belonging to Sorkin. Sorkin's parents have had about $900,000 invested with Madoff in more than one account; these were liquidated following the mother's death in 2007, long before the fraud became known, with the proceeds distributed to Sorkin's two grown sons.
Sorkin is the lead defense attorney on the Madoff fraud case, assisted by associates Daniel J. Horwitz, Nicole P. De Bello and Mauro M. Wolfe, who had changed firms along with him when he joined Dickstein Shapiro. On March 20, 2009, an appellate court denied his request to release Madoff from incarceration, to "penthouse arrest" pending his June, 2009 scheduled sentencing date.
Avellino & Bienes were accused of selling unregistered securities, and in its report the SEC mentioned the fund's "curiously steady" yearly returns to investors of 13.5% to 20%. However, the SEC did not look any more deeply into the matter, and never publicly disclosed Madoff. Through Sorkin, who once oversaw the SEC’s New York office, Avellino & Bienes agreed to return the money to investors, shut down their firm, undergo an audit, and pay a fine of $350,000. Avellino complained to the presiding Federal Judge, John E. Sprizzo
, that Price Waterhouse fees were excessive, but the judge ordered him to pay the bill of $428,679 in full. Madoff said that he did not realize the feeder fund was operating illegally, and that his own investment returns tracked the previous 10 years of the S&P 500
. The SEC investigation came right in the middle of Madoff's three terms as the powerful chairman of the NASDAQ
stock market board.
The size of the pools mushroomed by word-of-mouth, and investors grew to 3,200 in nine accounts with Madoff. Regulators feared it all might be just a huge scam. "We went into this thinking it could be a major catastrophe. They took in nearly a half a billion dollars in investor money, totally outside the system that we can monitor and regulate. That's pretty frightening." said Richard Walker, at the time, the SEC's New York regional administrator.
The case number is: SEC v. Avellino & Bienes et al., Lit. Rel. No. 13443 (Nov. 27, 1992).
Bienes, 72, recently discussed that he deposited $454 million of investors' money with Madoff, and until 2007, continued to invest several million dollars of his own money. "Doubt Bernie Madoff? Doubt Bernie? No. You doubt God. You can doubt God, but you don't doubt Bernie. He had that aura about him." His $6.7 million home in the exclusive Bay Colony of Ft. Lauderdale is presently for sale.
Mr. Mendelow has also been subpoenaed in the present Madoff Scandal and is cooperating, according to his lawyer, who said he engaged in no wrongdoing. “I don’t think he has done anything to promote Mr. Madoff since the 1992, 1993 decree,” said Stanley S. Arkin, Mendelow’s lawyer.
.
Bernard Madoff
Bernard Lawrence "Bernie" Madoff is a former American businessman, stockbroker, investment advisor, and financier. He is the former non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market, and the admitted operator of a Ponzi scheme that is considered to be the largest financial fraud in U.S...
, the American businessman who has pleaded guilty to perpetrating the largest investor fraud ever committed by a single person.
Education and career
Sorkin grew up in Manhasset, NY and graduated from Manhasset High SchoolManhasset High School
Manhasset Secondary School is a four-year public high school and middle school located in Manhasset, at 200 Memorial Place, in Nassau County, New York on the North Shore of Long Island...
in 1961. He was president of his senior class, starting center on the football team and the star shot-put of the track and field
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
team. He received his B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
from Tulane University
Tulane University
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...
in 1965 and his J.D.
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
from The George Washington University Law School in 1968.
Sorkin is currently a member of Lowenstein Sandler, a New Jersey based law firm. He was partner at Dickstein Shapiro
Dickstein Shapiro
Dickstein Shapiro LLP is a large U.S. law firm and lobbying group based in Washington, D.C.. According to the National Law Journal's 2007 rankings, it is the 117th largest law firm in the United States...
, a large American law firm. He was a summer intern in the federal prosecutor's office in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
in 1967. He spent three years as a staff lawyer in the New York office of the Securities and Exchange Commission and five years as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York is the chief federal law enforcement officer in eight New York counties: New York , Bronx, Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Orange, Dutchess, and Sullivan. Preet Bharara, who was appointed by Barack Obama in 2009 is the U.S. Attorney for the...
. He returned to the S.E.C. in May 1984–86 as its New York regional administrator. In 1976, he became a defense attorney.
"I tried 15 cases in 11 months," he recalled. "In those days, we tried everything — stolen mail cases, food stamp cases. These days, if you're prosecutor for five years, you might get to try five cases."
One of his first private clients was Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....
in the law firm of Howard Squadron, Theodore Ellenoff and Stanley Plesant. When the firm was sold, he joined Dickstein Shapiro. On November 8, 2010, Mr. Sorkin left Dickstein Shapiro along with four other lawyers to join New Jersey based law firm Lowenstein Sandler as a partner.
Sorkin defended Monzer al-Kassar
Monzer al-Kassar
Monzer al-Kassar , also known as the "Prince of Marbella", is an international arms dealer. He has been connected to numerous crimes, including the Achille Lauro hijacking and the Iran-Contra scandal. On November 20, 2008, he was convicted in U.S. federal court as part of a U.S...
, a Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
n convicted in November 2008 of supplying arms to undercover agents posing as anti-American terrorists.
Bernard Madoff
Howard Squadron and several other partners invested with Bernard MadoffBernard Madoff
Bernard Lawrence "Bernie" Madoff is a former American businessman, stockbroker, investment advisor, and financier. He is the former non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market, and the admitted operator of a Ponzi scheme that is considered to be the largest financial fraud in U.S...
, and the firm's pension
Pension
In general, a pension is an arrangement to provide people with an income when they are no longer earning a regular income from employment. Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is paid in regular installments, while the latter is paid in one lump sum.The terms retirement...
account, including about $19,000 belonging to Sorkin. Sorkin's parents have had about $900,000 invested with Madoff in more than one account; these were liquidated following the mother's death in 2007, long before the fraud became known, with the proceeds distributed to Sorkin's two grown sons.
Sorkin is the lead defense attorney on the Madoff fraud case, assisted by associates Daniel J. Horwitz, Nicole P. De Bello and Mauro M. Wolfe, who had changed firms along with him when he joined Dickstein Shapiro. On March 20, 2009, an appellate court denied his request to release Madoff from incarceration, to "penthouse arrest" pending his June, 2009 scheduled sentencing date.
SEC v. Avellino and Bienes
In November 1992, Sorkin represented two accountants, Frank J. Avellino and Michael S. Bienes of Fort Lauderdale. Bienes began his career working as an accountant for Madoff's father-in-law, Sol Alpern. Then, he became a partner in the accounting firm Alpern, Avellino and Bienes. In 1962, the firm began advising its clients about investing all of their money with a mystery man, a highly successful and controversial figure on Wall Street, but until this episode, not known as an ace money manager, (Madoff). When Alpern retired at the end of 1974, the firm became Avellino and Bienes and continued to invest solely with Madoff.Avellino & Bienes were accused of selling unregistered securities, and in its report the SEC mentioned the fund's "curiously steady" yearly returns to investors of 13.5% to 20%. However, the SEC did not look any more deeply into the matter, and never publicly disclosed Madoff. Through Sorkin, who once oversaw the SEC’s New York office, Avellino & Bienes agreed to return the money to investors, shut down their firm, undergo an audit, and pay a fine of $350,000. Avellino complained to the presiding Federal Judge, John E. Sprizzo
John E. Sprizzo
John Emilio Sprizzo was a federal judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.-Early life:...
, that Price Waterhouse fees were excessive, but the judge ordered him to pay the bill of $428,679 in full. Madoff said that he did not realize the feeder fund was operating illegally, and that his own investment returns tracked the previous 10 years of the S&P 500
S&P 500
The S&P 500 is a free-float capitalization-weighted index published since 1957 of the prices of 500 large-cap common stocks actively traded in the United States. The stocks included in the S&P 500 are those of large publicly held companies that trade on either of the two largest American stock...
. The SEC investigation came right in the middle of Madoff's three terms as the powerful chairman of the NASDAQ
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
stock market board.
The size of the pools mushroomed by word-of-mouth, and investors grew to 3,200 in nine accounts with Madoff. Regulators feared it all might be just a huge scam. "We went into this thinking it could be a major catastrophe. They took in nearly a half a billion dollars in investor money, totally outside the system that we can monitor and regulate. That's pretty frightening." said Richard Walker, at the time, the SEC's New York regional administrator.
The case number is: SEC v. Avellino & Bienes et al., Lit. Rel. No. 13443 (Nov. 27, 1992).
Bienes, 72, recently discussed that he deposited $454 million of investors' money with Madoff, and until 2007, continued to invest several million dollars of his own money. "Doubt Bernie Madoff? Doubt Bernie? No. You doubt God. You can doubt God, but you don't doubt Bernie. He had that aura about him." His $6.7 million home in the exclusive Bay Colony of Ft. Lauderdale is presently for sale.
SEC v. Telfran Ltd.
Sorkin also represented accountants, Steven Mendelow of New York City and Edward Glantz of Lake Worth, Fla., who in 1989 began their own pool, Telfran Ltd., investing in Avellino & Bienes, and sold $89.6 million in unregistered notes. They were charged in a separate SEC civil lawsuit alleging that Telfran made money by investing in Avellino & Bienes notes paying 15% to 19% annually, while paying Telfran investors lower rates. All funds were ordered by the SEC to be returned to the investors. The case is: Civil Action No. 92·8564, SDNY] (LR·13463)Mr. Mendelow has also been subpoenaed in the present Madoff Scandal and is cooperating, according to his lawyer, who said he engaged in no wrongdoing. “I don’t think he has done anything to promote Mr. Madoff since the 1992, 1993 decree,” said Stanley S. Arkin, Mendelow’s lawyer.
Philanthropy
Sorkin is fund-raising chairman of American Friends of the Hebrew University. Through ads and testimonials, he helps to promote tourism to IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
.