mr. pete leveton, from lakewood. he is a share -- a co-chairman of an investor committee, which represents over 200 indirect investors of a lot -- of a colorado investment group. i had been working with them and members of the investor committee for months, trying to develop remedies to the inequities between direct bond investors and indirect investors like the actual group. -- the agile group. many others who invested in the securities are ordinary people who invested their life savings on what they thought to be safe pension plans, trust funds, an investment account. they did their own research to determine the best investment group, and they believe big birds like agile invested their savings plans. they trusted groups like these investors to turn investors in the safe legal funds. unfortunately, agile and other investment firms were defrauded by bernard madoff, by stanford, by others, and all of -- all the savings were lost. many are eligible to recover $500,000, but indirect investors are not. mr. chairman, we

mr. leveton, i assure you that mr. ellison and i will be discussing your discussions. -- your suggestion. we are informed by the plight of our own constituents and don't know about all aspects of this. to represent some of the people in my constituency today, i am pleased to introduce a good friend of mine. mr. lancette has served as a chairman of the local steam fitters union since 2005, is also the president of the central and northern new york building and construction trades council, representing 16,000 pensioners and their families from other unions and central new york. thank you for coming to speak with us and look for during her testimony. i want to thank -- bank the local 267. they suffered serious losses because of the madoff scandal. all the headlines have been full of wealthy and prominent investors who lost money, the pension funds of approximately 60,000 union workers and retirees in central and upstate new york were also exposed and suffered great losses. central new york unions lost at least $350 millio

mr. pete leveton, from lakewood. he is a share -- a co-chairman of an investor committee, which represents over 200 indirect investors of a lot -- of a colorado investment group. i had been working with them and members of the investor committee for months, trying to develop remedies to the inequities between direct bond investors and indirect investors like the actual group. -- the agile group. many others who invested in the securities are ordinary people who invested their life savings on what they thought to be safe pension plans, trust funds, an investment account. they did their own research to determine the best investment group, and they believe big birds like agile invested their savings plans. they trusted groups like these investors to turn investors in the safe legal funds. unfortunately, agile and other investment firms were defrauded by bernard madoff, by stanford, by others, and all of -- all the savings were lost. many are eligible to recover $500,000, but indirect investors are not. mr. chairman, we

mr. leveton talked about, who did not know, mr. madoff or any of these guys, but invested in a fund that invested in these particular entities. how far should the sipc insurance reach? and tax wise, when tens of th -- when somebody takes those illusory gains and the carry- back, that might give the least some recovery. those are the three baker policy -- those are the three big policy questions. ms. lankford, how did you get into the meat off network -- ms. langford, how did you get into the bernie madoff network? >> by looking for a vehicle -- i had just sold winehouse -- sold my house, and it was my retirement. i asked a friend, i said i wanted something safe, liquid, and diversified. and he said, hands down, the best place to put your money. so i entered into it that way. >> so you were a direct investor with may off -- with bernie madoff? >> no, in direct. it was a limited partnership. technically -- it was not technically a retirement account, but it was my retirement money. >> ok, thank you. one more point, to mr. coffee's st

mr. pete leveton, from lakewood. he is a share -- a co-chairman of an investor committee, which represents over 200 indirect investors of a lot -- of a colorado investment group. i had been working with them and members of the investor committee for months, trying to develop remedies to the inequities between direct bond investors and indirect investors like the actual group. -- the agile group. many others who invested in the securities are ordinary people who invested their life savings on what they thought to be safe pension plans, trust funds, an investment account. they did their own research to determine the best investment group, and they believe big birds like agile invested their savings plans. they trusted groups like these investors to turn investors in the safe legal funds. unfortunately, agile and other investment firms were defrauded by bernard madoff, by stanford, by others, and all of -- all the savings were lost. many are eligible to recover $500,000, but indirect investors are not. mr. chairman, we