Posted by Brian Baxter
Two years ago Gaytri Kachroo was chair of McCarter & English's international practice. She resigned from the firm in July 2009 as a result of conflicts related to several cases she was pursing on her own probing the $20 billion Ponzi scheme perpartrated by Bernard Madoff.
Now, Kachroo can be seen on film relentlessly pursuing that goal in Chasing Madoff, a documentary about Harry Markopolos and his team, known as the Fox Hounds, and their quest to get someone, anyone, to listen to Markopolos's long-held concerns about Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities.
Kachroo, who serves as an associate producer on the film, began working with Markopolos in 2005 after the two met at a meeting hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Cambridge, Mass. The meeting came around the same time that Markopolos, a former options trader turned financial fraud investigator, wrote a 19-page memo to the SEC titled "The World's Largest Hedge Fund is a Fraud."
Kachroo soon joined the Fox Hound team assembled by Markopolos. Other members of the self-appointed financial truth squad—which collected evidence on the Madoff enterprise and used it to implore the SEC to implement necessary regulatory changes—include research analyst Neil Chelo, hedge fund manager Frank Casey, and former financial journalist Michael Ocrant.
Since joining the Markopolos team, Kachroo has helped prepare the whistle-blower for testimony before Congress, advised the Fox Hound on a report compiled by the SEC inspector general that recommended revisions to the regulator's mandate and the adoption of new whistle-blower protections, and brokered book and movie deals for Markopolos. The book and movie rights were not very lucrative, Markopolos told The New York Times, but brought much-needed attention to the issue of regulatory reform and whistle-blower rights.
In October 2009, Kachroo opened her own firm, Boston-based Kachroo Legal Services, where she employs three attorneys, one of whom is John Ray III, a former senior litigation associate at Ropes & Gray now suing the firm for discrimination.
Kachroo currently represents dozens of Madoff victims in lawsuits seeking compensation for investment losses and also serves as vice chair of a global alliance of 50 law firms representing former Madoff investors. She also represents a group of clients seeking to be reimbursed for investments made with R. Allen Stanford, another former financier alleged to have run a $7 billion Ponzi scheme.
Chasing Madoff opened Friday in New York.
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