Funds Hub

Morning Line-Up: EMI, “dodging the real problem”, NYSE Euronext

News and views on the asset management industry from Reuters and elsewhere:

Citigroup  eyes EMI sale - New York Post

Investors lambast report in banks’ practices – Daily Telegraph

NYSE Euronext shareholders skeptical of Nasdaq, ICE  bid- Reuters

Madoff NOT dying of cancer – Prisons Bureau

The latest update on the health of convicted fraudster Bernard Madoff, from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, is that Madoff is NOT dying of cancer.

A spokeswoman said in a written statement: “Bernie Madoff is not terminally ill, and has not been diagnosed with cancer”, although the bureau didn’t deal with every point raised in the New York Post story.

The Post had reported that the fraudster, who is serving a 150-year jail sentence in a North Carolina prison, had told inmates he does not have long to live, and quoted one inmate saying Madoff was taking “about 20 pills a day” and was “not doing very well”.

Legal experts said a serious illness could have guided Madoff’s decision to plead guilty to the $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

However, one victims’ lawyer, Joseph Cotchett, said he had seen no indication that Madoff was sick when he visited him in prison last month.

Madoff ‘dying of cancer’ – NY Post

One story from the New York Post understandably attracting plenty of interest, despite official denials: Bernie ‘Dying’ in Jail.

The Post reports the jailed fraudster, who is serving a 150-year prison sentence, has told fellow inmates he is dying of cancer. One inmate says Madoff was taking “about 20 pills a day” and “not doing very well”.

A prisons spokeswoman told Reuters the story was inaccurate, but couldn’t confirm or deny details about Madoff’s health.

Meanwhile, the Post also reports a shirtless Madoff has taken up a surprising new activity — weekly “Native American religious purification ceremonies”, involving prayers, heated rocks to induce sweat and smoking from a ceremonial pipe.