Kevin Bacon among latest hurt in Madoff scheme: reports

(Reuters) - A prominent Wall Street economist, Hollywood actor Kevin Bacon and his wife are the latest people to have lost money on investments connected to accused swindler Bernard Madoff, according to media reports.

Economist Henry Kaufman lost several million dollars, which he had in a brokerage account with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities for more than five years, the Wall Street Journal said, citing Kaufman in an interview on Tuesday.

The president of financial consulting firm Henry Kaufman & Co said his Madoff loss was no more than a couple of percent of his entire net worth and immaterial to his financial well-being, the paper said.

Kaufman became known for correctly forecasting higher inflation and interest rates when he was chief economist with Salomon Brothers in the 1970s and 1980s, when he acquired the moniker "Doctor Doom."

Bacon and his actress wife, Kyra Sedgwick, also lost money with Madoff, the New York magazine said on its website on Tuesday, citing Bacon's representative, Allen Eichorn.

Henry Kaufman and Kevin Bacon could not be immediately reached for comment.

Madoff is accused of running a purported $50 billion, global Ponzi scheme in which earlier investors were paid off with investments from newer clients.

Scores of wealthy people, banks, universities and charities all over the world are claiming to be victims of massive fraud, though the exact amount of money lost is not yet known in what could be the largest fraud in Wall Street history.

(Reporting by Eric Yep in Bangalore; Editing by Kim Coghill)