Allen Stanford, the Texas billionaire charged yesterday in an $8 billion fraud by the SEC, apparently lied to his clients about all kinds of things. Including not losing any money to Bernie Madoff.

One of the most popular items at the American International Toy Fair, which is now taking place at the Jacob Javits Convention Center? The "Smash-Me Bernie" doll, which is designed to resemble Bernie Madoff in a red devil suit with a pitchfork. "It comes with a 'limited edition' hammer, for the purpose of pulverizing Mr. Madoff in effigy." And for victims of Madoff, the $99.95 toy is still a bit less expensive than an hour of psychotherapy. [Dealbook, NYDN]

• Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson skipped out of a Valentine's Day appearance at the Hard Rock in Florida, supposedly because both had come down with the flu. But they didn't appear too sick the night before when the pair were spotted in a screaming match outside the Charlotte Ronson after-party on the Lower East Side. [People, NYP, NYDN]
• Chris Brown now says he's "sorry and saddened" over the incident with Rihanna. [LAT]
• Salma Hayek and Francois-Henri Pinault got married on Saturday. [People]
• Amy Sacco says she's planning to do a reality show for Bravo. [NYDN]
• Dina Lohan owes $11,485 in back taxes on her Long Island home. [P6]
• Jesus Luz's mother says her son has been "kidnapped" by Madonna. Also, in case you're wondering, Madge is the same age as his grandmother. [NYP, DM]

Ugh. Ponzi ponce Bernie Madoff has claimed another. William Foxton, a 65-year-old retired British military officer, shot himself in the head after losing his life's savings in Madoff's $50 billion moneysuck.

• Have you heard? Our banks are insolvent. Happy Friday to you, too. [NYT]
• The markets are down this morning as the House and Senate prepare to vote on the $789 billion economic stimulus package. [CNN]
• It's still unclear whether Wall Street got the message that "that high living on the corporate tab is now unacceptable." That's comforting to hear. [Reuters]
• Leon Black's Apollo has tapped Henry Silverman as COO. [WSJ]
• AIG's financial products unit is now under investigation in Britain. [DB]
• Morgan Stanley has suspended its global head of real estate investing. [FT]
• Prosecutors have started interviewing employees of Bernie Madoff. [WSJ]
• Tim Geithner and Fed chairman Ben Bernanke are in Rome today and tomorrow to meet their G-7 counterparts to discuss the stimulus plan. [WSJ]
• Time's list of 25 people to blame for the economic crisis. [Time]

A second person to lose his life savings to Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme has committed suicide. [Times UK via Clusterstock]

Alexandra Penney—the stupendously un-self-aware once-rich former magazine editor and sex book author who lost all her money to Bernie Madoff and became our favorite blogger—has a book deal! "Notorious" is the new "Deserving."

It's always the question when a husband goes bad: How could the wife not know? Massachusetts officials say Ruth Madoff took $15.5 million out of husband Bernie Madoff's firm shortly before his arrest.

The Journal reports that Ruth Madoff, the wife of Bernie Madoff, withdrew $15.5 million from a brokerage account in the weeks before her husband's arrest. Clearly, this must be a total coincidence since she knew absolutely nothing about the scheme. [WSJ]

Mark Green announced he was retiring from politics when he lost the Democratic nomination for state attorney general to Andrew Cuomo in 2006. But now we've got a crisis on our hands and Green is returning to the fray to save us from ourselves! Green announced this morning that he plans to run for his old job as New York City's public advocate: "In a time of crisis, the city needs leaders who combine proven experience with new ideas." And who appreciates these gloomy economic times better than someone who lost a bundle to Bernie Madoff? [NYT/City Room]

Were you searching for a topographical representation of Bernie Madoff's victims? Your search is over. Zero Hedge took the addresses in places like Manhattan, Los Angeles, and Palm Beach, geocoded them, and then imported them into a mapping application. This is another example of the recession's silver lining: When you take the brain power on Wall Street that was once focused on making money and redirect it to other projects, great things can happen. Just imagine what would happen if you took all these hedge funders and focused them on a cure for cancer! [Zero Hedge]

It's still unclear how many of the people on the "Madoff List" were truly victims of the Ponzi scheme. The trustee liquidating Madoff's financial firm has said that some of the people listed may have served as trustees or agents for other people who lost money, which may explain why some of the people who have stated publicly in recent weeks that they'd lost a fortune to the scheme don't appear at all. (Case in point: Ira Rennert has said he lost $200 million to Madoff's scheme, but his name does not appear in the 163-page document.) But it's interesting to go through the names anyway, and you don't even need to bother with the tedious task of scanning the PDF document: There's a Madoff victim search engine that has made the process much easier. Just point your browser here and you can look people up by address or name. After the jump, a long list of people who have turned up as possible victims in the last day or two.

Some surprising finds from the massive list of Madoff victims released last night: John Malkovich, Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax, the estate of John Denver, CNN's Larry King, former public advocate Mark Green, real estate developer Larry Silverstein, and Madoff's own lawyer, Ira Lee Sorkin. (Not everyone listed is necessarily a victim—it includes anyone who responded to advertisements placed by the trustee overseeing the bankruptcy of the firm.) But there's one name that is curiously missing from the list. Zsa Zsa Gabor! The 91-year-old actress and her publicity-loving ninth husband, "Prince" Frederic von Anhalt, made a big production a couple weeks ago about how they lost $10 million to Madoff's scheme. Neither Gabor nor von Anhalt, however, are listed in the 163-page document.

• Bank of America went ahead with the purchase of Merrill Lynch—even after having last-minute doubts—because Washington pushed it to do so. [WSJ]
• Yesterday's testimony by Harry Markopolos before a House subcommittee looking into the Madoff affair was eye-opening, to say the least. [NYT, Reuters]
• One damning accusation by Markopolos: Walter Noel's Fairfield Greenwich Group went on a "three-year auditing shopping spree." [Fortune]
• Another Markopolos revelation: The Wall Street Journal missed numerous chances to break the Madoff story open. [Clusterstock]
• Reaction to Obama's plan to cap Wall Street pay—and opinions as to whether it could even work or not—has been all over the map. [WSJ, BN, NYT]
• Erin Callan took a leave from Credit Suisse because she's been summoned to testify before a grand jury about the collapse of Lehman Brothers. [NYP]
• The number of new claims for jobless benefits reached its highest level since the 1982 recession last week. [WSJ]

The Wall Street Journal wrote frequently about how the SEC ignored Harry Markopolos' warnings about Bernie Madoff. It slammed the agency for investigating "without much energy." Left unsaid: the Journal was itself apathetic.

Wednesday evening special: The full list of Bernie Madoff victims, trading partners, and customers has been released publicly. You'll need about four hours to go through it—it's 162 pages long—but if you've been wondering if your neighbor's sudden decision to trade in his Mercedes for a Hyundai was because he was a victim of the scheme, now you'll be able to find out. (The list was compiled by a firm retained by the trustee charged with liquidating Madoff's securities firm, according to the Post.) We'll let you know if we spot any notable names. Naturally, you're welcome to go through it, too, and email us if you spot anything interesting. The list in PDF format is here.

Steven Simkin, a partner at a big New York law firm, is suing his ex-wife, Laura Blank, for $2.7 million he paid in a divorce settlement for her half of a Bernie Madoff account.

At last, everyone is hearing Cassandra out. The doomed prophet has taken modern shape in Harry Markopolos, the Boston accountant who blew the whistle on Bernie Madoff. The SEC ignored him. Now Congress listens.

Bernie Madoff is complicating everything! Steve Simkin, a partner at the law firm Paul, Weiss is now suing his ex-wife Laura, demanding that she return the $2.7 million he gave her as part of a divorce settlement in 2006. Why? Because Simkin's money was invested with Madoff, of course, and the settlement was based on the assumption the couple had $5.4 million in their Madoff account. The couple says it took two years to negotiate their divorce the first time around. So you can expect to read a follow-up to this case in the paper in 2011 or so. [NYDN]

• More details about President Obama's plans to limit Wall Street pay are emerging. So is plenty of criticism. "I don't think the president should paint everyone with the same brush," says JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon. [BN, WSJ, BN]
• Wells Fargo has scrapped plans to host a employee conference in Las Vegas after the bank was pummeled with criticism. [WSJ]
• A dozen top bankers from Merrill-BofA have defected to Deutsche Bank. [TD]
• Lazard's fourth-quarter profits dropped by 50 percent. [DB]
• Daniel Och is doubling down on his hedge fund, Och-Ziff. [WSJ]
• Both Citigroup and the Mets say they're standing by their stadium plan. [NYP]
• Bloomberg LP is laying off staff. [Clusterstock]
• The House will hear testimony about Bernie Madoff today from Harry Markopolos, the investigator who tried to blow the whistle on him. [NYT]