As Madoff was primarily a Democratic doner, seems proper that Obama ask that his party do so...
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_03_08-2009_03_14.shtml#1236959007 >>> Can Politicians Keep Madoff's Contributions? Looks like Madoff going to the clink is also going to mean the end of a serious money train for a lot of politicians according to this report by Open Secrets. As recently as September 2008 he wrote a $25,000 check to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (see here). Googling around I haven't been able to find any definitive report on whether recipients of his largesse will return the contribution. This story indicates that Congressman Markey will give away the equivalent to charity, but it seems unclear on many of the others. An interesting legal question is whether even if the recipients, such as the DSCC, want to keep these funds whether they actually can. These contributions all look like classic fraudulent transfers. Under the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act section 5 a transfer is fraudulent if "if the debtor made the transfer or incurred the obligation without receiving a reasonably equivalent value in exchange for the transfer or obligation and the debtor was insolvent at that time or the debtor became insolvent as a result of the transfer or obligation." Clearly Madoff was insolvent at the time of these transfers in light of his contingent liabilities. Moreover, I can't see how a political donation could be seen to be anything but a transfer for less than "reasonably equivalent value" as that term traditionally has been defined. Congress amended the bankruptcy laws a few years ago to protect transfers to charitable organizations but that wouldn't apply to political organizations. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
