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Politics & ReligionWell Since every damn forum has one. Might as well leave it out there. This place is loosely moderated and should not be entered if you're weak of heart.
I'm still waiting to see some returns on the $26,806 I pay in taxes every year (and that's before I add in what I'm paying in property and sales taxes).
If you'd prefer, here's the much more boring article published directly to the SEC website. Includes the complaint, filings, and everything else. Much less entertaining though. Even in the official release by the SEC, they still claim that this is a "massive fraud." Not quite as effective or comical as "epic," but still note-worthy.
Epic was my addition in the description, but I feel that a $50billion heist qualifies the use of that term in the actual article; it's pretty amazing that the only way this guy got caught was that his sons turned him in.
The Yahoo article is a reprint of an article run by Reuters; give me some credit, I could have totally chickened out and thrown up a link from DRUDGE REPORT or something.
Back to the article itself
Basically, it outlines Bernard Madoff's investment fraud plot. Former chairman of the NASDAQ milks his investors for 20+ years in some cases, all the while taking them for nearly everything they're worth. Investigators don't KNOW how much he stole, they came up with the $50billion figure because that's what he had admitted to his sons / accountant.
He was released on 10 million dollars bond, and investigators are already certain that he personally responsible for the destruction of at least 15 billion dollars in wealth.
I find it kind of frightening that this isn't bigger news; seems to show an acceptance almost. Almost like this sort of thing is becoming so much the norm, that the shock value is slipping away.
""There were a lot of very sophisticated people who were duped, and that happens a great deal when you've had somebody decide to be unscrupulous," said Harvey Pitt, a former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a regulator in charge of monitoring investment funds like the one Madoff operated."
This kind of stuff makes me crazy. This guy stole more money than the big 3 are asking for. $50b would employ FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND people @ $100k per year for a year.
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"The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change culture and save it from itself." -Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Its the scope of the scam - people have a hard time getting their minds wrapped around $50B, just gone. Plus, we're already getting numb from $320B here, and $25B there, and $700B on the other side, and $2T with icing, and...
So will we see tarp funds diverted to those rich and powerful interests who lost money in this heist? I smell a bailout in the works!
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"The candle which burns twice as bright burns half as long. And you have burned so very bright, my child."
"We may look at our complex civilisation and say, 'We managed to reach this complex state, and if we did this, we surely can do almost anything!’ However we did not do this intentionally, with a plan that was executed; it is a self-organised system. The complexity is beyond our comprehension or ability to manage."
""There were a lot of very sophisticated people who were duped, and that happens a great deal when you've had somebody decide to be unscrupulous," said Harvey Pitt, a former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a regulator in charge of monitoring investment funds like the one Madoff operated."
So how did Madoff get away with his $50 billion fraud? Time will tell when and how it started, although I'd hazard the dot com bust. Madoff may have been unwilling to report losses, and assumed (initially) that no one would be hurt if he fibbed if he could eventually trade his way out of trouble. But given the freakish consistency of his returns, it could have been phony from the get go.
The critical bit was that Madoff's firm executed its own trades. No nasty third-party records to diverge with what the customer statements showed.
But another shocker came to light today: the SEC, via its own protocols, should have inspected the Madoff Ponzi operation prior to the end of 2007 and failed to. Why? Evidently, due to Madoff's good reputation in the industry.
What is particularly curious (if my assumptions are correct) is that Madoff kept his registered status, which meant he would at some point have the SEC knocking on his doors. I am assuming he registered in 2006 because that is when the SEC has an initiative underway to register hedge funds with over $25 million in assets under management. Some evaded it by getting investors to agree to 2 year+ lockups (that put them in a different category). But the registration requirement was nullified when a hedge fund manager sued successfully, claiming that the SEC was misusing its statutory authority under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Most hedge fund then removed themselves from registration; for some reason Madoff did not. Did he somehow think he could bluff the SEC, or did he have a death wish? (Note: I am assuming the Madoff investment operation was considered to be a hedge fund, otherwise, it should have been registered as an investment adviser long ago).
In any event, that particularly day of reckoning did not come to pass.
This is the type that are the real criminals today. This type of criminal has destroyed many peoples lives. Years and years of peoples entire savings and investments gone without a trace.
This is the type that are the real criminals today. This type of criminal has destroyed many peoples lives. Years and years of peoples entire savings and investments gone without a trace.
Yep, and compared to the kid who gets sent up for an ounce of pot (goes to the big house for a sizable stretch, and comes out a truly hardened crim), this guy, if convicted, might see a couple years in a "Club Fed" minimum security facility, and still come out with $millions to play with after... He needs to go to a serious Federal Penn, adn come out with nothing but the prison shirt on his back.
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"You keep usin' tha' word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
$50 Billion; Stolen.
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