EXCERPT Madoff was single-handedly managing billions of dollars in offices he kept separate from the rest of his firm........The only oversight was conducted in am upstate Rockland County accounting office only slightly larger than a cubicle (the firm's main office was in NYC). Friehling & Horowitz is a three-person accounting operation based in the northern suburbs of New York City. It is run by one partner, David Friehling, who is in his seventies and is understood to live in Florida, and employs an accountant and a secretary. David Friehling is now under investigation.
Madoff made his fortune embracing the latest and best technology, BUT he forbade investors to get online access to their accounts, insisting instead on paper printouts....
For well over a decade, competitors and experts said they found Madoff's track record suspicious. He seemed immune to any volatility in the market and, no matter what was happening in the economy at large, managed to finish each month with almost identical profits. . Madoff dismissed attacks as envy and said critics simply did not understand the complexities of his strategies.
Aksia LLC was hired to investigate Madoff several years ago, said principal Jake Walthour. The probe only increased the concerns about the fund. Madoff's returns were "abnormally smooth" from month to month, and it seemed impossible to replicate his investment strategy or verify his track record.
Mr Madoff claimed to be moving as much as $13 billion in and out of the market every month, but "no one on the street could verify it or even see his footprints," Walthour said. "That organization was incredibly secretive." When they staked out the tiny accounting firm no one had ever heard of, investigators concluded something was amiss. "We decided there are several scenarios here, one of which is, this could be a Ponzi scheme," Walthour said.
Those who have invested in the fund have told investigators that withdrawing cash from it was an arduous process that involved faxes and inexplicable delays. That's because in a Ponzi scheme, money from new investors is used to pay those seeking to withdraw their money.
SOURCE Bloomberg and NY Post wire reports
http://www.nypost.com/seven/12132008/news/regionalnews/alarm_bells_in_1999_ignored_143971.htm
are people really that dense that they think this is the only clown out there?
The Messiah will offer a bailout to the idiot investors.
“Who is Bernard Madoff?”
A major democrat donor.
So basically....investors did not care HOW the money was made as long as they made it: no access to accounts....no account footprints....secretive organization.... From this angle...investors look as guilty as Maddog....
>$5,000 earned during summer jobs as a lifeguard and installing sprinklers
At what point did this man go astray? Or is this story a crock? If this is all true, I wonder if it’s organic. I’ve heard of early dementia and brain tumors completely changing people like that.
Not a Blago defense, just trying to understand.
...great more millionaires and billionaires that middle class Americans are going to have to bail out. :(
If I had my way the question would be, “Who WAS Bernie Madoff?”
A lot of people who thought they were getting an “inside” deal not available to ordinary mortals got screwed by their own greed. My sympathy is nil. Seeing as how a lot of these suckers were rich and powerful democrat contributors, the government (that’s you and me) will probably reinburse them.