Wall Street legend Bernard Madoff arrested

[Mo_Gearhead]

Wall Street legend Bernard Madoff arrested over '$50 billion Ponzi scheme'.

Mr Madoff, 70, a former Nasdaq stock chairman, was apparently turned in by his two sons and arrested on Thursday morning at his Manhattan apartment by the FBI.

Andrew Calamari, a senior enforcement official at New York's Securities and Exchange Commission, described the scheme as "a stunning fraud that appears to be of epic proportions".


Story at:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5331997.ece

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...more shoes to fall?

[RWebb]

"If money is the root of all evil
You are beggin' at the feet of the Devil"

- C. Hynde

[Mo_Gearhead]

Hummm ...a $50 billion Ponzi scheme by a prominent Wall Street Legend.

24 hours ...and one response? (I should give it a 'One star' rating.) **yawn**

I just assumed such a story would create, at the least, some minor discussion.

Perhaps the evaporation of $50 billion by ONE MAN is small potatoes in this new era of Trillions?

(back to the shoe/sock/chest/butt thread)

[Jim Richards]

Good. Ferret out all the Wall St. crooks, strip them of their assets and put them behind bars.

Have a nice day.

[djmcmath]

So what's the impact? I mean, I'm all for locking up crooks, but ... what changes? What's true today that wasn't true yesterday because of this?

[Jim Richards]

Maybe we need to get them out of the gene pool.

[74-911]

Apparently this affects primarily the Long Island, Hampshires, Palm Beach and hedge fund crowd mostly. The funny part is apparently many of the "smart money" type investors invested in this fund knowing that returns consistently that high had to be illegal, they just assumed it was insider trading and market making.

Good to see some of the smart money crowd get burned for once.... usual the little guy that gets burned.

Also, apparently the SEC had been warned years ago that something was fishy but just looked the other way, probably because of his reputation and influence.

[pwd72s]

I never understood hedge funds...so, I stayed away from them. Age 70? $50 Billion stolen? Man, he must be in great physical condition. I mean, $50 Billion can buy lots of hookers and blow.

[competentone]

Originally Posted by Mo_Gearhead

Perhaps the evaporation of $50 billion by ONE MAN is small potatoes in this new era of Trillions?

Yes, with the government -- and particularly one man, Henry Paulson -- openly assisting Wall Street firms (especially Paulson's former firm, Goldman Sachs) in covering up fraud and engaging in the theft of literally trillions of dollars, $50 billion is really "small potatoes."

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Mo_Gearhead

Mr Madoff, 70, a former Nasdaq stock chairman, was apparently turned in by his two sons and arrested on Thursday morning at his Manhattan apartment by the FBI.

The FBI couldn't figure out that he was hiding out in his apt???

You know, I'd like a tiny piece of one of these pies. Just a tiny one. I'd be tickled ping if I could have gotten .001% of the pie. I suspect they don't go after that kind of small potatos. Just one time and I'd be done.

[rfuerst911sc]

I'm guessing he won't be buying the sons presents for Christmas

[TheMentat]

Originally Posted by rfuerst911sc

I'm guessing he won't be buying the sons presents for Christmas

I'm pretty sure they conveniently had their annual bonuses paid out before they turned him in...

[competentone]

Originally Posted by TheMentat

I'm pretty sure they conveniently had their annual bonuses paid out before they turned him in...

From the stories I've read, Madoff tried to pay bonuses early -- which was one of the factors that raised questions with the sons.

So far, the initial stories would indicate that the sons were not involved in the "money management" end of the business the father was running, but the story is still extremely new.

It may be a few months before the whole thing is unraveled and exactly "who knew what, when" is determined (which will probably then still have to be argued in court).

With something this size, odds are there are more guilty participants -- or at least people who "closed their eyes" to some huge "red flags."

[HardDrive]

Originally Posted by rfuerst911sc

I'm guessing he won't be buying the sons presents for Christmas

Their Jews. Many of the people wiped out were Jewish philanthropies.

What an a55hole.

[Nine17]

Interesting to see all these calls for prison (or even execution). It drove me nuts after the Junk Bond calamity that most of these clowns did a short stretch at Club Fed and got to keep their assets! The Justice Department should STRIP HIM OF HIS ASSETS and let him figure out how to eat and keep a roof over his head with a real job like the rest of us! That's a worse punishment for a Master of the Universe than three hots and a cot at Club Fed. And as was pointed out above, many of the investors who got fleeced were complicit in thinking that they were simply the beneficiaries of insider trading, so let's use his seized assets to pay off the national debt and reduce our children's future tax burden...

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by Nine17

Interesting to see all these calls for prison (or even execution). It drove me nuts after the Junk Bond calamity that most of these clowns did a short stretch at Club Fed and got to keep their assets! The Justice Department should STRIP HIM OF HIS ASSETS and let him figure out how to eat and keep a roof over his head with a real job like the rest of us! That's a worse punishment for a Master of the Universe than three hots and a cot at Club Fed. And as was pointed out above, many of the investors who got fleeced were complicit in thinking that they were simply the beneficiaries of insider trading, so let's use his seized assets to pay off the national debt and reduce our children's future tax burden...

A mere $50 Billion is a drop in the ocean of the $trillions of national debt. But hey, gotta start somewhere, right?

[Mo_Gearhead]

Additional news here;

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20081213/D952444G0.html

I saw someone on the news last P.M. just as we were leaving to go out (so I didn't get his name). He stated some hedge funds(?) had looked at Madoff's ' books ' some YEARS back, did not like Madoff's explanation as to how he could consistently post "eight percent, yearly gains" like clockwork, had passed on investing with his fund and may have (in fact) reported their finding (suspicions) to the SEC??

If that turns out to be true ...and the SEC turned a blind eye ...then stay tuned.

[Mo_Gearhead]

(Taken from the story/link listed below):

Financial analysts raised concerns about Madoff's practices repeatedly over the past decade, including one letter to the SEC as early as 1999 that accused Madoff of running a Ponzi scheme, but the agency did not conduct even a routine examination of the investment business until last week, The Washington Post reported on its Web site Monday night.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081216/D953Q67O0.html


Also:

A 95-year-old Boston clothing tycoon, Carl Shapiro, looks set to be the biggest single victim of Bernard Madoff's fund management scam by losing up to $545m (£357m) at the hands of the Wall Street fraudster.

A respected philanthropist, Shapiro entrusted much of his wealth to Madoff and had $400m of his own money in the disgraced financier's firm, plus $145m from his family's charitable foundation.
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...will we soon be seeing people jumping from buildings, ala 1920's?

[Mo_Gearhead]

[Mo_Gearhead]

Many more people named, that fell under Bernie's spell.
But others that "funneled" funds to him ...soon to be outed also?

( 'Best Seller' material here ...for someone so inclined.)


Story here:

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20090205/D965FQO80.html