Booker Prize Sponsor Caught in Madoff Web

Compiled by DAVE ITZKOFF writing in The New York Times, December 23, 2008

The Man Booker Prize said that the financial services company that sponsors the prize would continue to subsidize it even though it had about $360 million in funds linked to Bernard L. Madoff, Bloomberg News reported.

The Booker Prize, the prestigious annual British literary award, has been sponsored since 2002 by the Man Group, a publicly traded investment company and hedge fund, which increased the cash award accompanying the prize to about $73,000 from about $31,000.

The group said it had $360 million invested in two funds linked to Mr. Madoff, the former Wall Street executive accused of defrauding clients of more than $50 billion. But Jane Acton, a spokeswoman for the Man Booker Prize, told Bloomberg, “There’s absolutely no reason to suggest that there would be any difference to the sponsorship deal we have at the moment.”