Chais also told the publication that he not only personally invested with Madoff but also "facilitated" others who wished to do likewise.
Spokesmen for the Securities and Exchange Commission and the California Department of Corporations said they could find no record of Chais registering as an investment advisor or a broker.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday, December 20, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 37 words Type of Material: Correction
Also, an article in Section A on Wednesday about the Madoff scandal misidentified the American Jewish Congress as the United Jewish Congress. The article also misspelled the last name of Reed Kathrein, an investor's attorney, as Kathrien.
The Chais Family Foundation, which for more than two decades provided substantial funding to global Jewish causes, shut down Sunday after Madoff-related losses left it penniless.
Madoff's decades-long enterprise also entangled such high-profile investors as director Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of DreamWorks Animation SKG.
Katzenberg and Spielberg's Wunderkinder Foundation both had investments with Madoff that were made on their behalf by their business manager, Gerald Breslauer, according to people familiar with the situation.
Breslauer's Century City-based firm once represented the who's who of Hollywood and the music industry. Today, the practice he and his partner, Mickey Rutman, run centers around the affairs of Spielberg and Katzenberg, according to several people familiar with the operation.
Breslauer declined to comment Tuesday through an office assistant who said, "We don't discuss our clients' affairs."
Attorneys, agents and other industry insiders who have done business with Breslauer for many years spoke in glowing terms about the 80-year-old business manager, saying he had been highly regarded in Hollywood for his integrity and play-it-safe approach to investments.
"He certainly is a victim here," producer Tom Pollock said of Breslauer.
Pollock, who formerly headed Universal Pictures, said he had known Breslauer "for over 30 years" and characterized him as "one of the most conservative business managers I've ever known."
Madoff was arrested Thursday and reportedly conceded that he had operated a Ponzi scheme, using money from newer investors to pay off early investors. The assets of his Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities were frozen last week in a deal with federal regulators, and a receiver was appointed to manage the firm's financial affairs.
Jewish charitable groups were among those reporting the biggest losses. On Tuesday, the New York-based United Jewish Congress said it was considering closing its Los Angeles office because of investment losses.
