Jeff Mende
08-29-2009, 11:42 PM
Daily Racing Form
Del Mar | Posted 8/19/2009, 7:50 pm
Shapiro pleads no contest to keying car
By Steve Andersen
DEL MAR, Calif.- Richard Shapiro, the former chairman of the California Horse Racing Board, pleaded no contest earlier this week to misdemeanor charges of vandalizing horse owner Jerry Jamgotchian's car with a key at Hollywood Park in April.
At a hearing on Tuesday, Shapiro, 56, was sentenced to three years of informal probation and must pay $6,800 in damages to Jamgotchian, a horse owner and an outspoken critic of Shapiro and the racing board in recent years.
The incident occurred on the same day as a racing board hearing at Hollywood Park. Shapiro was not at the meeting as chairman, having resigned from the racing board last December.
Shapiro, who was racing board chairman for four years, was charged with felony vandalism in July, but reached an agreement on a lesser charge with the district attorney's office.
Shapiro joined the racing board in 2004 and left last fall after learning he had lost significant money in the Bernard Madoff investment scandal.
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The New York Times
One Madoff Victim Speaks
March 10, 2009, 5:32 pm
Dozens of letters from victims of Bernard L. Madoff have poured into federal district court in lower Manhattan before his expected guilty plea on Thursday.
In one letter obtained by Dealbook, Richard B. Shapiro, who had his life savings with Mr. Madoff and has now been left penniless, compared the crime to a rape.
“The truth is we were raped and he should be treated no differently than any rapist,” Mr. Shapiro wrote in a letter to the court, referring to Mr. Madoff. “Any notion that he, or any of his family and cohorts will be left with any assets is abhorrent to us.”
After learning of Mr. Madoff’s crime on Dec. 11, Mr. Shapiro says he went into a “deep depression,” didn’t leave his house for nearly a month and lost 30 pounds after fearing that his wife and children would be left homeless. “I had no desire to live, no prospects of earnings a living, no way to pay the bills,” he said.
He has put his house in Hidden Hills, Calif. on sale, cut back on discretionary expenses and is now back to working seven days a week after retiring four years ago.
Mr. Shapiro, who is 55 years old, said he felt glad that Mr. Madoff had decided to plead guilty and will likely serve a life sentence.
“I hope he is incarcerated with other rapists, not fellow scam artists that can laugh about the frauds they perpetrated,” he wrote to DealBook in an e-mail message. “More importantly, I hope that as part of any plea, he has to disclose where the money is, where it went, and that his family is forced to live comparable to many victims; poverty and despair.”
–Zachery Kouwe
Del Mar | Posted 8/19/2009, 7:50 pm
Shapiro pleads no contest to keying car
By Steve Andersen
DEL MAR, Calif.- Richard Shapiro, the former chairman of the California Horse Racing Board, pleaded no contest earlier this week to misdemeanor charges of vandalizing horse owner Jerry Jamgotchian's car with a key at Hollywood Park in April.
At a hearing on Tuesday, Shapiro, 56, was sentenced to three years of informal probation and must pay $6,800 in damages to Jamgotchian, a horse owner and an outspoken critic of Shapiro and the racing board in recent years.
The incident occurred on the same day as a racing board hearing at Hollywood Park. Shapiro was not at the meeting as chairman, having resigned from the racing board last December.
Shapiro, who was racing board chairman for four years, was charged with felony vandalism in July, but reached an agreement on a lesser charge with the district attorney's office.
Shapiro joined the racing board in 2004 and left last fall after learning he had lost significant money in the Bernard Madoff investment scandal.
-----
The New York Times
One Madoff Victim Speaks
March 10, 2009, 5:32 pm
Dozens of letters from victims of Bernard L. Madoff have poured into federal district court in lower Manhattan before his expected guilty plea on Thursday.
In one letter obtained by Dealbook, Richard B. Shapiro, who had his life savings with Mr. Madoff and has now been left penniless, compared the crime to a rape.
“The truth is we were raped and he should be treated no differently than any rapist,” Mr. Shapiro wrote in a letter to the court, referring to Mr. Madoff. “Any notion that he, or any of his family and cohorts will be left with any assets is abhorrent to us.”
After learning of Mr. Madoff’s crime on Dec. 11, Mr. Shapiro says he went into a “deep depression,” didn’t leave his house for nearly a month and lost 30 pounds after fearing that his wife and children would be left homeless. “I had no desire to live, no prospects of earnings a living, no way to pay the bills,” he said.
He has put his house in Hidden Hills, Calif. on sale, cut back on discretionary expenses and is now back to working seven days a week after retiring four years ago.
Mr. Shapiro, who is 55 years old, said he felt glad that Mr. Madoff had decided to plead guilty and will likely serve a life sentence.
“I hope he is incarcerated with other rapists, not fellow scam artists that can laugh about the frauds they perpetrated,” he wrote to DealBook in an e-mail message. “More importantly, I hope that as part of any plea, he has to disclose where the money is, where it went, and that his family is forced to live comparable to many victims; poverty and despair.”
–Zachery Kouwe