NY union pensions lost money through Madoff: report

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Three northern New York trade unions have joined the legion of investors that lost money in an alleged $50 billion fraud by Bernard Madoff, The Post Standard of Syracuse, New York, reported on Thursday.

According to the newspaper, local branches of United Union of Roofers Waterproofers & Allied Workers Local 195, Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 73', and the Empire State Carpenters Fringe Benefit Funds told members they had lost money in the collapse of Madoff's empire.

Patrick Morin, business manager for the Empire State Carpenters Union, was quoted in the report as saying the pension funds were trying to determine how much had been lost. It said one of the union's money managers, J.P. Jeanneret Associates of Syracuse, had invested union funds with Madoff.

Morin could not be reached for comment.

Madoff was arrested on December 11 in New York City on a charge of securities fraud after allegedly telling his sons that his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, was "a giant Ponzi scheme."

Authorities have estimated that $50 billion was lost.

The newspaper reported that the carpenters fund trustees had decided to hire a law firm and a litigator to file a lawsuit on behalf of the fund's participants and that the roofers union had told its members its fund was in "critical status."

The report said that the New York State AFL-CIO believes about eight unions in the Syracuse area have lost money through investments with Madoff.

The plumbers and steamfitters in Syracuse had about $155 million in trust funds, including the pension, health, annuity and general funds, according to the report.

(Reporting by Joseph A. Giannone)