The Jewish Community Foundation (JCF) of Los Angeles announced on Wednesday that it lost 18 million U.S. dollars in the massive Bernard Madoff investment fraud case.

As the largest manager of charitable assets for Los Angeles area Jewish philanthropists, the JCF said the loss represents less than 3 percent of the JCF's total assets and about 6 percent of assets in its common investment pool as of the end of 2007.

The JCF released the figure as part of a report completed by a committee appointed to examine the circumstances related to the organization's investment with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities.

Marvin I. Schotland, the JCF's president and CEO, said the JCF undertook the financial analysis "out of an unwavering commitment to continuing disclosure and accountability that we have stressed since the outset of these events."

The foundation invested a total of 18 million dollars with Madoff in two stages beginning in March 2004. Immediately following revelations of the 65-billion-dollar fraud, the JCF board began looking into possibly revising policies and practices of its investment committee, Schotland said.

He said the organization remains financially strong, with total assets of 670 million dollars at the end of last year.

Schotland added that the JCF's mission of supporting the Jewish community in Los Angeles and Israel, along with broader charitable causes, remains unchanged.

"We are responding to the troubled U.S. economy by stepping up financial support for critical programs that reach those with the most profound needs," he said.

Established in 1954, the JCF ranks among the 10 largest Los Angeles foundations. In 2008, the foundation and its donors distributed more than 63 million dollars in grants to hundreds of organizations with programs that span the range of philanthropic giving, Schotland said.

The New York-based Madoff, a 70-year-old former chairman of the Nasdaq stock market, was charged with operating the biggest investment fraud in Wall Street history, cheating private investors, charities and pension funds out of an estimated 65 billion dollars.

He pleaded guilty to perpetrating the fraud, a classic Ponzi scheme in which early investors were paid returns with investor funds from later clients, involving at least 4,800 victims. Madoffis now in jail awaiting sentencing.

Source:Xinhua