DATELINE: January 8, 2008, Chicago
The Madoff scandal will have many repercussions. One is reflected in the letter reproduced below from Andrew L. Sole, a managing member of Esopus Creek Advisers, a hedge fund. Mr. Sole is an alum of Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Cardozo is part of Yeshiva University.
In his letter, Sole calls for the resignation of Yeshiva's board of trustee. Sole is not your ordinary alum. According to the letter he made a multi-year...
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pledge to the Cardozo that he fully intends to fulfill. The question left unanswered is whether he will make another donation to Cardozo. The tone suggests that he would like to, but will he if Yeshiva doesn't take strong and appropriate action in response to the Madoff scandal? The repercussions keep sounding.
Dear Mr. Joel [The President of Yeshiva University]:
As a proud graduate of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (Class of 1999) allow me to begin by expressing my profound sadness regarding the significant financial loss and reputational harm sustained by Yeshiva University. I am sure these are very difficult times for everyone at the University today.
The allegations against Bernard Madoff, a former trustee and treasurer of the University, are breathtaking in scope. His alleged fraud has damaged the lives of thousands of innocent people and has either severely impaired, or permanently destroyed, hundreds of charitable institutions nationwide, and it has damaged Yeshiva University.
I have nothing but the deepest respect for Cardozo, both the faculty and its’ administration. Cardozo was incredibly magnanimous when I entered the law school program in the fall of 1996, bestowing upon me a Mack Scholarship. I never forgot this completely unexpected act of financial generosity, indeed I never forgot one moment of the wonderful intellectual experience at Cardozo. Attending Cardozo remains one of the best professional decisions I have made during my twenty-three year career.
Upon graduating in 1999, I returned to managing my business and the financial affairs of my clients but always stayed in touch with the outstanding faculty at Cardozo. In the spring of 2006 I decided to return Cardozo’s generosity by making a multi-year financial pledge to the Criminal Law Clinic. As you know the Clinic does essential legal work on behalf of indigent people in conjunction with the Legal Aid Society. I am thrilled this financial contribution has been able to supplement the Clinic’s work and I look forward to sending my final installment this summer.
With all of this said, it gives me great pause to express certain sentiments that I have with respect to the performance of Yeshiva University’s Board of Trustees. As the grandson of a physician, I have a basic understanding of the Hippocratic oath and one of its’ critical tenets, “to do no harm”. But unfortunately today harm has come to this distinguished University, both in financial loss and worse, in reputation. It is my view that the harm today is directly attributable to the failed performance of our trustees. As fiduciaries they lost sight of their primary mission, to safeguard the long-term interests of Yeshiva University. Whether their activities were merely negligent, or worse, that judgment is best left for others.
In my view it will take a generation to repair the damage inflicted upon Yeshiva. And that is very sad. But what would be even sadder, and which would also give grave concerns to Yeshiva’s many supporters, would be for the University to continue to allow the current Board of Trustees to serve as fiduciaries going forward.
The honorable course (and we have seen virtually no honorable behavior in American corporate boardrooms, nor in our public servants, in 2008) would be for the University’s President, and its legal counsel, Sullivan and Cromwell, to demand the immediate resignation of the entire Board of Trustees. The University’s counsel, government regulators, and law enforcement will conduct their proper investigations, but the proud students, graduates, and supporters of Yeshiva University should not have to wait that long for credible and therapeutic action to be taken by this University.
Yeshiva has the opportunity to begin the healing process today by installing new fiduciaries that are untainted by scandal and embarrassment. I hope you will take this letter to heart and I wish the University the best during these incredibly trying times.
Sincerely,
Andrew L. Sole
[Reprinted with permission--no copyright claimed in the letter by Charity Governance Consulting LLC]
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