'Everyone was greedy,' Bernard Madoff told New York magazine.'I just went along' Photo: AP
Posted on 02/28/2011 1:24:38 PM PST by fight_truth_decay
Bernard Madoff, the disgraced financier, accused the investors whose money he lost in a £40 billion Wall Street investment fund of being greedy.
Madoff, who is serving a 150-year prison sentence, also rubbished the financial reforms introduced by the US to prevent future corruption and claimed: "The whole government is a Ponzi scheme".
He added: "These banks and these funds had to know there were problems". "It was a nightmare for me," he said. "Even the regulators felt sorry for me ... They said 'how did you live with this? Not being able to tell anybody?'"
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
"Hi, I'm Bernie. Trust me."
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The court-appointed trustee scrutinizing Madoff's assets found a super-secret labyrinth of interrelated international funds, institutions and financial entities of almost unparalleled complexity and breadth......with assets and businesses in multiple places overseas that hid thievery, money laundering and tax evasion.
That serves to underline that Madoff was running simultaneous scams:
(1) a tax evasion scheme for wealthy businessmen ("losing" money is a tax write-off;
(2) a money laundering scam;
(3) a protection racket for affinity groups,
(4) aiding and abetting wealthy tax-exempt foundations to evade US banking laws and the IRS.
(5) hiding money for wealthy businessmen some of which was used for campaign donations (FEC fraud), and foundation fraud (IRS fraud)
Keep in mind Bernie‘s investors were savvy, astute successful business people, accustomed to constructing, picking apart and analyzing financial statements. One investor who spoke to reporters was a stockbroker (her family invested with Bernie for generations---the family's patriarch founded the wildly successful Stop and Shop supermarket chain). Other investors gave Madoff $100-500 millions to "invest" for years and years.
Madoff apparently made insider deals with many of his "investors." He would guarantee a certain return if they invested a certain amount. Federal authorities announced a $7.2B deal to settle the largest lawsuit with the estate of "philanthropist" Jeffry Picower---a big backer of Planned Parenthood. Mrs Picower claims her husband did not know Madoff was a crook (as she spent the fraudulent 900% profits). Mr Picower drowned after suffering a heart attack in his Florida swimming pool in 2009.
“Other people knew. There is no doubt about this. There is no way in today’s markets that you can move $50B+ around and NOT leave tracks.”
You’re right. I revise my previous remarks. Other people had to have known.
Sorry, I attribute it to simple human greed and human nature.
Madoff's investment appeared to be making astounding, unexplainable returns. Massive growth. I have no clue why someone wealthy like Speilberg would "invest" with Madoff, except that enough is never enough. Everybody wants more. If you have cash, you want to put it to work, not sit on it. You want it to grow as fast as possible. Even if you are mother Theresa or Akiane and only want to give it away to charity at somepoint, it is human nature to want more and to want to maximize your investments.
Madoff appeared to maximize everybody's investment. Except that he violated the simple rule that all honest men know, which is "If it seems to good to be true, it probably is."
Many of his clients knew he was cheating, they just thought he was cheating others, and not him.
"So why did these smart and skeptical investors keep investing? They, like many Madoff investors, assumed Madoff was somehow illegally trading on information from his market-making business for their benefit. They didn't consider the possibility that he was clean on that score but running a good old-fashioned Ponzi scheme."
"Good grief. Anyone who invested with Madoff thinking he was gaining on insider trading deserves to lose it all. "
From this source:
http://www.marketwatch.com/Community/groups/us-politics/topics/madoff-madness-knew-he-cheating
"Good grief. Anyone who invested with Madoff thinking he was gaining on insider trading deserves to lose it all. "
From this source:
http://www.marketwatch.com/Community/groups/us-politics/topics/madoff-madness-knew-he-cheating
BTTT!
Investing with Madoff was like being in a private, elite club away from the troglodytes of every day investing.
Yes, a private club that just happened to pay out impossible returns for the perceived risk. If he was paying 1% per year, I don’t think that exclusive club would have been so popular.
It comes down to greed alone. Pure and simple.
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