Stanley Chais, a Beverly Hills money manager for Hollywood’s elite who was accused of recklessly plowing nearly $1 billion in client funds to Bernard Madoff, has died. He was 84. Chais died on Sunday in Manhattan of natural causes, according to Grace Brugess, a spokeswoman for the New York City chief medical examiner.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission accused Chais in a June 2009 civil lawsuit of funneling client money to Madoff, a close friend since the 1960s, while ignoring red flags that Madoff’s seemingly steady returns were bogus. Chais had said he, too, was a Madoff victim and lost nearly all his money in the fraud, which prosecutors have estimated at $65 billion.

(Source: Reuters)