Movie idea: the daughter of Jewish refugees flees Europe for Wall Street, strikes it rich, gains billionaire mobster clients, but is then forced into hiding by a deal gone wrong. Bonus: it's a true story.

Prosecutors seeking to revoke Bernie Madoff's bail have submitted a list of gifts that he allegedly sent out on Christmas Eve to family and friends. There's still at least one package missing, though (and there may be others), so if you get a package in the mail with the return address of 133 East 64th Street and you open it up to find, say, a gently-used diamond watch, please contact the FBI. Thanks! [NYT]

• It wasn't just overly tanned Jews in Palm Beach who were ripped off by Bernie Madoff. London's Evening Standard says Italian fashion designer Valentino may have been a victim as well. [ES]
• Ten days before his arrest, Bernie Madoff convinced elderly Palm Beach entrepreneur and philanthropist Carl Shapiro into giving him an additional $250 million. [WSJ]
• Bank Medici founder Sonja Kohn, who raised $2.1 billion for Madoff from rich Europeans and Russians, is now missing. [NYT]
• Disgraced Madoff pal Ezra Merkin will step down as chair of GMAC. [FT]
• German billionaire Adolf Merckle, who committed suicide earlier this week, was in debt to the tune of $6.7 billion. [BN]
• American companies shed 693,000 jobs in December. [MW]
• Bank of America's Ken Lewis will not be getting a bonus. [BN]
• Ken Griffin's main hedge fund dropped 53 percent in 2008. [CNN]

If our Bernie Madoff ringtone failed to satisfy your craving for Madoff-related multimedia, perhaps this rap video will do the trick. We're going to go out on a limb and say this is quite possibly the first rap song in history to squeeze in references to both Libor and Larry Kudlow, but presumably this is what happens when investment bankers lose their jobs and turn their attention to novelty singing careers. And it's nice to see the grand tradition of Jewish rappers remains alive and well, isn't it?

A German billionaire killed himself after hefty stock losses. A French money manager committed suicide after losing billions to Bernie Madoff. Is shame confined to the Old World?

Bernie Madoff might not be able to leave his apartment, but now you can take him with you wherever you go! We're very happy to present you with the very first Bernie Madoff ringtone, which in a violation of everything Bernie holds dear, we're giving away for free. The ringtone features a few phrases from a talk Madoff gave in 2007, set, appropriately enough, to the theme music from the horror movie Halloween. As for how to actually turn this MP3 into your ringtone if you don't know how to do it, you should probably consult your cell phone manual or something. We have it working on a couple of Blackberrys—navigate your browser to this address, open the file, and save it your Blackberry and you'll see it appear in the directory of ringtones. It's a bit more complicated with iPhones, but here are instructions if you feel like giving it a shot. Oh, and we'll be giving away a few more ringtones in the next few days, so if you have suggestions, now would be a good time to let us know. [Bernie Madoff Ringtone - Download]

Alexandra Penney was a wealthy UES sex book author and editor who lost everything in the Bernie Madoff swindle. The only winners: us, because she's now the most delightfully un-self-aware ex-rich blogger evah!

• A judge has yet to decide whether Bernie Madoff can stay at home or if he'll have to report to prison for violating the terms of his bail by handing over $1 million jewelry to his sons on Christmas Eve. [NYT]
• The trustee liquidating Madoff's firm has found $830 million in assets. [BN]
• Merrill brokerage chief Bob McCann is leaving the firm now that the sale of Merrill to Bank of America is complete. [WSJ]
• Rumor has it Wesley Edens is exploring the possibility of taking his beleaguered hedge fund/private equity shop private. [FT]
• Who will replace Morgan Stanley chief John Mack? The bank's board is now exploring the options in preparation for Mack's retirement in 2010. [WSJ]
• Flailing billionaire Ron Perelman is hoping to squeeze more cash out of Morgan Stanley as part of a 10-year-old legal dispute. [NYP]

Bernie Madoff is still at large. Prosecutors are trying to get the financier, accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, thrown in jail for mailing valuables to his brother. Including mittens!

A well-rested Bernie Madoff walked out of his apartment building for the first time in two weeks earlier today. The alleged scamster headed downtown for a bail hearing, accompanied by his attorney and a private investigator assigned to protect him. His lifestyle seems to have already been downgraded, alas—the car waiting for him was a four-door Ford Crown Victoria. But Bernie's fondness for shady behavior remains unaffected. Prosecutors ordered the bail hearing because they learned that Madoff mailed more than more than $1 million in jewelry to his sons on Christmas Eve. [FBN, NYP]

If you were thinking that author Daphne Merkin would have a good deal to say about the Bernie Madoff saga—and she must considering her brother is Ezra Merkin, the man who lost $1.8 billion of investor cash as part of the scheme—you're probably going to be disappointed by her piece on Tina Brown's website The Daily Beast. Merkin offers up few specifics about the events in question (or whether her own finances were affected), although you can probably take this as a thinly-veiled defense of her embattled brother:

Bernie Madoff has been out of sight since a judge confined him to his East 64th Street apartment a couple of weeks ago, but there's been plenty of news to keep Madoff in the spotlight. Today a House panel is addressing why the SEC failed to detect the fraud earlier (particularly since the agency acknowledges it looked into the firm 8 times over the past 16 years), a handful of Madoff victims have come forward in the last week (including hedge fund guru Michael Steinhardt), and the scandal-plagued law firm Milberg LLP now says it's signed up 100 victims as part of a class action lawsuit. The most amusing new Madoff details, though, come from an interview with Julia Fenwick, who worked as Madoff's office manager in London for eight years and was a close friend of Bernie's niece, Shana Madoff. Fenwick says Madoff was "the most anally retentive person I have ever met"—and she's not kidding.

This was the year when the reckless behavior of risk takers from Wall Street traders to mortgage lenders to Bernie Madoff blew up in everyone's faces. So it will probably come as cold comfort to learn why certain people are willing to commit such daring acts: It's because they have fewer inhibitors of happy-chemical dopamine in their brains, neuroscience researchers have discovered. So they get an extra feel-good high whenever they take a risk, predisposing them to keep flirting with danger—until, you know, the market crashes or the feds come knocking.

Today is the day when accused swindler Bernie Madoff will turn over a list of all his assets to the SEC and detail where the cash he allegedly siphoned off is located. Madoff victims who are hoping to see a little restitution will be pleased to hear that Madoff has an extra $10,000 as of today: The statue that was stolen from his Palm Beach estate last week has resurfaced. It was returned to his property with a note: "Bernie the Swindler, Lesson: Return stolen property to rightful owners. Signed by–The Educators." [FINalternatives]

The list of Ponzi ponce Bernie Madoff's victims grows ever longer, and ever famouser. Kevin Bacon and his beautiful wife Kyra Sedgwick! And poor, impoverished New York University.

Two more victims of Bernie Madoff's giant Ponzi scheme: Kevin Bacon and his wife, Kyra Sedgwick, reports New York's Daily Intel, news that Bacon's publicist confirmed today. But there's good news for one other Madoff victim: Crain's reports that Yeshiva University, which previously indicated it had lost $110 million as part of the scam, now says it "only" lost $14.5 million, an error the school attributes to "fictitious numbers provided to it by Ezra Merkin."

A Very Noel Christmas [NYM/Daily Intel]

The Business Sheet was kind enough to dig up (and scan in) the 2002 Vanity Fair article on the "fabulous Noel sisters," the daughters of disgraced hedge fund manager Walter Noel, the man who handed over $7.5 billion to Bernie Madoff. The article concludes by pointing out that none of the five Noel girls have never been mixed up in any unseemly scandals. Guess there's a first for everything! [Business Sheet]

Bernie Madoff's high-profile investors may be out of luck, but employees of his firm aren't getting totally left out in the cold. The trustee presiding over the liquidation of Madoff's investment firm convinced a bankruptcy judge this morning to release $28.1 million to cover employee salaries and other expenses. This should ensure that Mark and Andy Madoff—who both worked for their father and claim they had no knowledge of their dad's scheme—get to see a paycheck at the end of the week. Perhaps they can take another fishing trip to celebrate? [NYP]

From left to right (click photo to enlarge): 1. Madoff Canvas Tote Bag; 2. Madoff Securities Cap; 3. Bernard Madoff Gray Fleece Blanket, 4. Bernard L. Madoff Backpack; 5. Bernard L. Madoff Emergency Kit; 6. Bernard L. Madoff Golf Umbrella; 7. Bernie Madoff Beach Chair; 8. Bernard Madoff Cigar Humidor; 9. Madoff Binoculars with Case; 10. Bernard L. Madoff Insulated Travel Bag; 11. Bernard Madoff - Actual Trading Statement (Copies); 12. Madoff Flashlight