Wait, lemme check the spelling of subpoena…

Okay.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has launched an investigation of Ezra Merkin and his role in steering tens of millions of dollars from major non-profits into Bernard Madoff’s ponzi scheme.

But the big non-profits – including Yeshiva University, Bard College, New York University, and New York Law School – are freaking out.

Why?

Because they are being hit by a flurry of subpoenas from Cuomo’s office seeking financial documents and meeting records.

And these non-profits see themselves as the victims – losing hundreds of millions of dollars to the Madoff scheme.

So, why the subpoenas?

That’s just how Cuomo does business.

He could send letter requests to the universities.

With a follow up phone call.

But Cuomo’s calling card is the subpoena.

Sally Blinken is a partner at Venable in New York.

Blinken spent seven years at the New York Attorney General’s Charities Bureau investigating non-profits.

“The Attorney General’s office often will use what is called a letter request,” Blinken said. “That’s simply a request asking for the non-profits voluntary cooperation – could you provide the following documents? It’s informal. But Cuomo’s office tends to use subpoenas more readily than letter requests. It’s a more official way of retrieving documents. People pay attention to a subpoena.”…

Yes, a subpoena flurry is certainly an attention-getter. But the real reason Yeshiva’s pissed is that it’s such a … a nice place. It’s a university! A serious place, with good people!

UD has seen how universities sometimes take advantage of the piety we feel toward them. They are special places, committed to the mind and the spirit rather than to crass petty materialism. They’re just… better.

Well, Yeshiva’s finances and business school were for a number of years run by at least two stupendous crooks, and would have continued to be run by crooks had one of them not had to confess when his Ponzi ran out of gas. Its all-male senior trustees were in one another’s financial pockets in the most absurdly flagrant conflict of interest UD’s ever seen at a university. When a high-profile Yeshiva grad demanded the resignation of the entire board, he was told by Yeshiva — in nice language — to fuck himself. Yeshiva remains a horribly tainted little world. Subpoenas are the sorts of things places like Yeshiva should expect.

Background on Yeshiva University here.