Yeshiva University's president has distributed a letter that states that the "school had hired lawyers and investment consultants to examine its conflict-of-interest policies and governance structures."
According to the New York Times, Yeshiva University has lost about 8% of the school's $1.2 billion endowment thanks to Mr. Madoff's now infamous ponzi scheme.
But as the school reflects, Mr. Madoff, while dasterdly indeed, had a bit of the advantage in the case of Yeshiva when, a close acquaintance, investment fund manager, fellow Yeshiva board member and chair of Yeshiva U. investment committee turned over a significant sum of investment money to Mr. Madoff's fund. And apparently, Yeshiva had no or at least a poor conflict-of-interest policy that, on a good day, would have prevented such a transaction. Sample conflict-of-interest policies can be found here.
Could this tragedy have been prevented or at least reduced in scale? Yes. At least Yeshiva is being a learning organization and turning its head in the right direction towards conflict-of-interest policies and improved governance.