Merkin resigns from GMAC board

J. Ezra Merkin, who is thought to have lost $1.5 billion through investments with troubled money manager Bernard L. Madoff, the founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, has resigned from the board of GMAC Financial Services, effective today. He will be replaced as chairman by Lenard Tessler, managing director and co-head of private equity at Cerberus Capital Management LP of New York, while the vacant seat will be filled by Jeffrey L. Lomansky, chief financial officer at Cerberus. On Dec. 29, GMAC Financial, the financing arm of General Motors Corp. of Detroit, received approval from the Federal Reserve to become a bank holding company. The following day, the Department of the Treasury said that it will inject $5 billion into GMAC Financial from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Mr. Madoff was arrested Dec. 11 after confessing to running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. GMAC Financial didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.