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{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{short description|American stockbroker (born 1944)}}
{{About||the physicist|Robert Jaffe (physicist)|the film producer|Robert Jaffe (producer)}}

{{Infobox person
| name = Robert M. Jaffe
| image =
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| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1944}}
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| nationality = American
| education =
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| occupation = stockbroker
| known for = associate of [[Bernard Madoff]]
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| spouse = Ellen Shapiro
| children =
| parents =
| relatives = [[Carl J. Shapiro]] (father-in-law)
| website =
}}

'''Robert M. Jaffe''' (born 1944) is an American [[stockbroker]]. He was a long-time associate of [[Ponzi scheme]]r [[Bernard Madoff]] and promoted Madoff's fund to wealthy investors in [[Massachusetts]] and [[Florida]].

He is vice president of [[Cohmad Securities]] Corporation.<ref name="online.wsj.com">{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123189380284379481mod=googlenews_wsj|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130210043930/http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123189380284379481.htmlmod=googlenews_wsj|archive-date=February 10, 2013|title=online.wsj.com/article/SB123189380284379481.html?mod=googlenews_wsj |url-status = dead}}</ref>

==Biography==
Jaffe is married to Ellen Shapiro, daughter of Boston philanthropist [[Carl J. Shapiro]], the founder and former chairman of apparel company Kay Windsor Inc. and an early investor and close friend of Madoff. Jaffe reportedly convinced the elder Shapiro to invest $250 million with Madoff just ten days before Madoff's arrest.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/12/20/a1a_jaffe_1221.html|title="Jaffe Tarnished as Feds Investigate Madoff", ''Palm Beach Post'' (December 20, 2008)}}</ref>

== Cohmad Securities Corporation ==
Maurice "Sonny" Cohn owned 48% of Cohmad, and his daughter Marcia, who served as president and chief compliance officer, owned 25%. Madoff owned 15%. Mr. Madoff's brother Peter owned 9%, and Mr. Cohn's brother owned 1%, and another unnamed Cohmad employee owned 1%.
<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite news| url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124568875235837661#articleTabs%3Darticle | work=The Wall Street Journal | title=SEC Files Fraud Charges Against Cohmad, Co-Founder in Madoff Case | date=June 23, 2009 | first1=Kara | last1=Scannell | first2=Robert | last2=Frank}}</ref> The brokerage firm lists its address as Madoff's firm's address in New York City.<ref name="online.wsj.com"/> Cohmad received $67 million in generated fees from Madoff investments, from 2000 to 2008.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123940737747310069 | work=The Wall Street Journal | title=Feeder Fees Topped $790 Million | date=April 11, 2009 | first=Tom | last=Lauricella}}</ref>

===Bernard Madoff agent===
A bon vivant and philanthropist, Jaffe "worked the [[Palm Beach, Florida]] circuit", and attracted many Palm Beach Country Club members as investors."<ref name="Vics1">{{cite news | last =Frank | first =Robert |author2=Peter Lattman |author3=Dionne Searcey |author4=Aaron Lucucchetti | title =Fund Fraud Hits Big Names; Madoff's Clients Included Mets Owner, GMAC Chairman, Country-Club Recruits | work =[[Wall Street Journal]] | date =December 13, 2008 | url =https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122914169719104017?mod=djemalertNEWS | accessdate =December 13, 2008}}</ref> Jaffe brought in 150 accounts and more than $1 billion to Madoff. Madoff paid Jaffe directly through accounts he kept with Madoff at much higher returns than earned by other investors. Between 1996 and 2008, Jaffe withdrew at least $150 million, and the [[U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission]] (SEC) claims he was aware Madoff was engaged in fictitious trading.<ref name="autogenerated1"/> Jaffe has said he received a commission of 1% to 2% from an investor's first profit, and he paid commissions to financial advisers who steered cash to Madoff's fund.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article5562935.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110612101142/http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article5562935.ece |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 12, 2011 |title=Madoff associate skips court hearing - Times Online |work=[[The Times]] |date= January 21, 2009|access-date=April 26, 2009 | location=London | first=Christine | last=Seib}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.muckety.com/2009/01/15/cohmad-securities-robert-jaffe-face-tough-questions-about-madoff-ties/10151 |title=Cohmad Securities, Robert Jaffe face tough questions about Madoff ties | Muckety.com - See the news |publisher=News.muckety.com |accessdate=April 26, 2009 |archive-date=April 30, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090430120644/http://news.muckety.com/2009/01/15/cohmad-securities-robert-jaffe-face-tough-questions-about-madoff-ties/10151 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== Civil lawsuits ==
On January 14, 2009, [[William F. Galvin|William Galvin]], [[Secretary of State of Massachusetts]], in charge of securities issues for Massachusetts, filed suit against Jaffe.<ref name="bostonherald1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view/2009_01_15_William_Galvin_sues_salesman_Robert_Jaffe:_Demands_testimony/srvc=business&position=recent_bullet|title="William Galvin Sues Salesman Robert Jaffe -- Demands Testimony", ''Boston Herald'' (January 15, 2009)}}</ref>

On February 4, compelled to testify, Jaffe invoked his [[Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifth Amendment]] right. He responded that he was also one of Madoff's victims.<ref name="bostonherald1"/>

On May 8, 2009, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts found the firm to be in "default" for not assisting regulators. Cohmad's securities registration has been revoked, and they must provide an accounting of all fees the company or its agents earned for referring Massachusetts investors to Mr. Madoff's firm as well as, pay a $100,000 fine for failing to cooperate with the state securities investigation.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124179163909400903 | work=The Wall Street Journal | title=Madoff-Tied Brokerage Loses Its Registration | date=May 9, 2009 | first=Robert | last=Frank}}</ref>

On June 22, 2009, Madoff Trustee [[Irving Picard]] filed a claim against Cohmad. Jaffe was named as a defendant among more than two dozen individuals and trusts in [[U.S. Bankruptcy Court]] in New York.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nylj.com/nylawyer/adgifs/decisions/062309cohmad.pdf|access-date=November 24, 2015|title=SIPA Liquidation No 08-01789|date=June 22, 2009}}</ref> The lawsuit claims that up to 90 percent of Cohmad's income came from referring clients and that the firm had a "symbiotic" relationship with Madoff, having earned hundreds of millions of dollars from the fraud. The lawsuit seeks more than $100 million paid to Cohmad six years prior to Madoff’s firm declaring bankruptcy, and more than $105 million in profits Cohmad employees and their families withdrew from the investment accounts they held with Madoff.<ref name="autogenerated1"/> The case is ''Picard v. Cohmad Securities Corp.'', 09-AP-1305, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, [[Southern District of New York]] (Manhattan).<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=amvc1G6COZes | work=Bloomberg | title=Madoff Bankruptcy Trustee Sues Cohmad Securities (Update2) | date=June 22, 2009}}</ref>

On June 22, 2009, the SEC also filed civil fraud charges<ref>{{cite news|access-date=November 24, 2015|title=SEC v. Cohmad Securities Corporation, et al|url=https://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/cohmadcomplaint20090622.pdf | work=The Wall Street Journal}}</ref> against Cohmad, and Jaffe was also named as a defendant. The lawsuit alleges the company was Madoff's "in-house marketing arm" and critical to Madoff's scam. Cohmad representatives were paid for funds they brought into the firm but not for any increase in the investments' value. Withdrawals were treated as a loss, which "suggested that profits generated by Madoff were fictitious", but Madoff changed the arrangement in 2002 and began paying Cohmad representatives $2 million a year. The case was ''SEC v. Cohmad Securities Corp.'', 09 Civ. 5680.<ref name="autogenerated1"/> In February 2010, the SEC lawsuit was dismissed, with the judge noting, "There is nothing inherently fraudulent about referring customers to an investment adviser for fees."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/404734570 |title=Charges against Jaffe are dismissed |last=Healy |first=Beth |newspaper=[[The Boston Globe]] |page=B.7 |date=February 3, 2010 |access-date=March 7, 2018 |id={{ProQuest|404734570}} |url-access=limited |via=pqarchiver.com}}</ref> In November 2010, the SEC filed an amended complaint, charging Jaffe and Cohmad with "material misrepresentations and omissions."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/761384071 |title=Jaffe and Cohmad 'reckless,' SEC says |last=Healy |first=Beth |newspaper=[[The Boston Globe]] |page=B.7 |date=November 2, 2010 |access-date=March 7, 2018 |id={{ProQuest|761384071}} |url-access=limited |via=pqarchiver.com}}</ref>

A $550 million settlement was announced on December 7, 2010, between Picard and SIPC and the Shapiro family; it was stated that $38 million of that represented "the full amount that the Trustee demanded from Robert Jaffe in connection with his role with Cohmad Securities".<ref name="auto">{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20140327144208/http://sipc.org/news-and-media/news-releases/20101207 Article title]}} SIPC news release, December 7, 2010</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090225211040/http://www.sec.state.ma.us/sct/sctcohmad/cohmad_complaint.pdf Commonwealth of Massachusetts Secretary of State Complaint], January 14, 2009
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20091229223951/http://www.nylj.com/nylawyer/adgifs/decisions/062309cohmad.pdf Picard v. Cohmad Securities Corp. 09-AP-1305], June 22, 2009
*[https://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/cohmadcomplaint20090622.pdf, SEC v. Cohmad Securities Corp., 09 Civ. 5680], June 22, 2009
*[http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/12/20/a1a_jaffe_1221.html "Jaffe Tarnished as Feds Investigate Madoff Connection", ''Palm Beach Post'' (December 20, 2008)]
*[http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2009/01/broker_ordered.html Beth Healy, "Broker Ordered to Appear at Madoff-Related Hearing", ''Boston Globe'' (January 15, 2009)]
{{Madoff investment scandal}}
{{2008 economic crisis|state=collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jaffe, Robert}}
[[Category:1944 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People associated with the Madoff investment scandal]]
[[Category:American stockbrokers]]
[[Category:People from Weston, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:People from Palm Beach, Florida]]

Robert Jaffe (stockbroker) - Revision history

imported>GreenC bot: Rescued 1 archive link; reformat 1 link. Wayback Medic 2.5 per WP:USURPURL and JUDI batch #26ai