Comments on: The Man Who Figured Out Madoff's Scheme
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- I just read that Bernie Madoff's wife has $823 Million in various banks, in addition to other holdings such as a yacht, etc....
JUST HOW BERNIE MADOFF GOT AWAY WITH IT ALL, FOR SO LONG...
With all these holdings and monies, and the wife (Ruth Madoff) not having any viable evidence as to how she acquired such wealth, I don't see why Madoff's victims cannot get a substantial portion of their loses back.
Folks, all of this happened because of numerous: "De-Regulations" that took place under Ronald Reagan. And Bill Clinton was kept so busy with the Monica Lowinski business that he had no time to keep an eye on most of the gov'ts business during his last years in office. Then George Bush came along and further relaxed many of the laws enforced by the fed govt. He even contracted out a great deal of the work that was done by govt employees to private contractors, who botched up things more times than not, for the people they were being paid to service.
BUT MADOFF KNEW HE HAD NOTHING TO FEAR FROM THE SEC under the Bush Administration. And if anyone even thought to go the the SEC with their suspicions, they got nowhere. Because Madoff had officials at the SEC eating out of his hands. And that should be investigated as well, because our govt is supposed to work for us, (rich or poor), but work. - Reply to this comment
- A few observations-
1) If anyone ever needed proof that capitalism needs to be regulated in a transparent way, this is a flaming example they should focus upon.
2) Self-regulation does not work and never has.
3) Government agencies that get their budget from fees paid by clients they are regulating become corrupt and enablers of the problems they are meant to solve.
4) Regulatory agencies must be run by personnel who have the training and background to understand what it is that they are regulating, and this does not mean a collection of lawyers interpreting documents to verify compliance.
5) Markopolos should be immediately appointed to oversee a complete overhaul of the SEC and restructuring of its oversight functions. - Reply to this comment
- "I've taken all the calculus courses, from integral calculus through differential calculus, as well as linear algebra. And statistics, both normal and non-normal," Markopolos said.
Asked how long it took him to figure out something was wrong, Markopolos said, "It took me five minutes to know that it was a fraud. It took me another almost four hours of mathematical modeling to prove that it was a fraud. "
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Too bad this guy who blew the whistle in 2000 was trying to use EVIDENCE and actual numbers during a 10 year era when everything was belief-based. - Reply to this comment
- I would like to know why Madoff is not in JAIL right now!!!
He has the stones to suggest that he be allowed to keep his penthouse and millions of dollars put in his wife's name that had nothing to do with the Ponzi scheme? How dare he!!!
Everything he and his extended family owns should be taken, liquidated, and put toward whatever can be salvaged from his corrupt and greedy scheme, so something can be returned to those that were bilked. As for Madoff, an orange jumpsuit, and a suite in Rikers Island is all he deserves. - Reply to this comment
- I was not involved with Madoff but I am still livid that he got away with this for as long as he did. It is so unfair when crooks like him, molesters, murderers, etc. are not found out until they have one foot in the grave. He has lived his entire life free and easy and only has to pay for what he did for a short time (if he pays at all) because he's nearing 71.
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- ["If you had executives at the biggest investment houses on Wall Street that knew something was wrong, why do you think they didn't go to the SEC?" Kroft asked.
"Because people in glass houses don't throw stones. And self regulation on Wall Street doesn't work," Markopolos said. ]
so if this is true ... then you'll never be able to get anyone who really understands the business to 'police' the business ... since in order to know it you have to come from it. - Reply to this comment
- Testimony of Harry Markopolos before the US House of Representitives on 2/4/09 should have been in every newspaper in complete form if one wants the answers for our economic problems. In my opinion, he should also be given the job of correcting the problem's in the Securities Exchange Commission. Don't dismiss what I'm telling you until you have read the Testimony ,if it's still there ,which I doubt. I hope ,it's still there in it's complete form. His corrections were quite compelling for our problems.
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- Until white collar criminals are punished like the criminals they are, they will always get away with this sort of crime. Unfortunately lawyers, judges, and politicians get to play by a different set of rules than the rest of us, and that in itself is the heart of the problem.
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- Harry Markopolos is an American hero. These are the individuals you talk about at the dinner table with your children... not a basketball or baseball star.
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- I'm sorry, but am I supposed to feel bad for all these "small people" (ppl who saved their whole lives to accumulate a substantial net worth) who lost money with Madoff?? I think the real fools here are those that put all their eggs in one basket and gave money to this man. Remember that old phrase if it sounds too good to be true it probably is? I'm sorry, I have no sympathy for that 80 year old couple in the story who had to sell all their homes. After 80 years of life experience, you would think they would know better not to put all eggs in one basket, and to know that something strange is up when (a) they were getting returns of 5% when the market was down -40%, and (b) there were very few down quarters, and (c) the lack of transparency.
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