Brandeis University was cited as one of Bernard Madoff's clients on a recently released list of his investors, but the University maintains that it did not invest any University funds in Madoff's Ponzi scheme.Madoff, a former chairman of the NASDAQ composite, was accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, a fraud operation in which investors are paid out of the money input by other investors rather than out of profits.

Campus-wide concerns that Brandeis' endowment would suffer arose when Brandeis University appeared on the list of Madoff's clients. The University is listed as the address for investor Michael Swartz '71, the associate vice president for gift planning at the University.

The University announced in a Feb. 5 press release that it appears on the list because "the University received gifts of securities from one or more donors from brokerage accounts they had established at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities." As University treasurer at the time, Swartz was the "Brandeis contact for such gifts," according to the press release. Swartz could not be reached for comment by press time.

The list of clients was filed Feb. 4 in a New York bankruptcy court, according to the Boston Globe.

University President Jehuda Reinharz said at a Feb. 5 press conference with campus media that a donor "used the Madoff brokerage firm" to contribute a gift to Brandeis. Reinharz said Madoff's brokerage firm opened an account when they sent money to Brandeis, but the University did not engage in any other transactions with the firm.

"That account was opened, the money was sent [and] that was the end of the story," Reinharz said. "We don't have a penny invested in Madoff," he added.

The press release also said that "it is not unusual for the brokerage house to establish an account in Brandeis' name to facilitate the transfer."

-Mike Prada and Hannah Kirsch contributed reporting.