Bernard Bernie Madoff

Introduction: Bernie Madoff was a well-respected financier, his company Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLC was very well known and even helped launch the Nasdaq stock market. Madoffs company was well trusted and he even had celebrity cliental such a Steven Spielberg, Kevin bacon, and Kyra Sedgwick. Madoff came from a low income family however, he was able to start his company from getting a $50,000 loan from his in-laws and he using money that he had saved from side jobs such as lifeguarding and installing sprinkler systems to found his company. The successfulness of Madoff’s company came from the company’s ability to adapt to change and us modern day computer technology. As his business grew he stated employing family members to help “His younger brother, Peter, joined him in the business in 1970 and became the firm 's chief compliance officer. Later, Madoff 's sons, Andrew and Mark, also worked for the company as traders. Peter 's daughter, Shana, became a rules-compliance lawyer for the trading division of her uncle 's firm, and his son, Roger, joined the firm before his death in 2006”(Bernard Madoff Biography 2016) Unfortunately on December 11th 2008 Bernie Madoff became well known for a whole new reason. He had been accused of performing an elaborate Ponzi scheme and he had been reported to the federal authorities by his own sons. A year later he admitted to the investigators that he had lost $50 billion dollars of his investors’ money and pled guilty to 11

What were the weaknesses in the “control environment” of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC?

Other parties greatly impacted by Bernie Madoff’s activities were his business associates and their many clients over the decades. For example, Frank Avellino and Michael Bienes themselves funneled over three thousand clients to Madoff’s investment advisory business. Madoff had consistently advised the pair to remain unregistered in their dealings. But when the SEC accused the duo of illegally selling securities, Madoff pretended ignorance of their activities, even though he had secretly instructed them all along. For their trouble, Avellino and Bienes were forced to pay a fine of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars and shut their business down. Other notable business partners eventually left in the lurch by Madoff’s growing fraud would go on to include Jeffrey Tucker and Walter Noel of Fairfield Greenwich Group. Non-related people who had worked under Bernie Madoff also became tainted from the association following his arrest. This employee group includes those who may have had indirect dealings through Madoff subsidiaries like Cohmad Securities Corporation. However, the idea also applies to those employed directly, such as former executive assistants Elaine Solomon and Eleanor Squillari. Jeffry Picower was in industrialist and philanthropist who seemed to be a favored Madoff beneficiary, and made outlandish profits from his investments with Madoff. From 1996-2007 there were 14 instances of greater than 100% yearly returns and 25 of greater than 50%. From

Bernard Lawrence “Bernie” Madoff born April 29, 1938. The founder of Bernie L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. Madoff was the chairman until his arrest on December 11, 2008. On March 12, 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies and admitted turning his wealth management business into a massive Ponzi scheme.

In March 2009, Madoff admitted that since the mid-1990s he stopped trading and his returns had been fabricated. Madoff's sales pitch, an investment strategy consisted of purchasing blue chip stocks and taking options contracts on them, sometimes called a split-strike conversion or a collar. Typically, a position will consist of the ownership of 30–35 S&P 100 stocks, most correlated to that index, the sale of

Bernard Madoff was born in Queens, New York on April, 29 1938 to parents Ralph and Sylvia Madoff. His parents married in 1932 during the Great Depression. Both struggled financially for many years and then became involved in finance. In 1960 his mother registered as a broker dealer using their home address in Queens as the office for Gibraltar Securities. His father was known for many underhanded dealings causing the closure of the business by the SEC. From 1956 to 1965 the couple’s house had an unpaid tax lien which proved that their financial dealings weren’t successful. Young Bernie was introduced into this type of lifestyle at an early age, although he didn’t seem as interested in it at the time.

Before the exposure of his scheme, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities seemed to be a normal investment firm (Bandler & Varchaver, 2009). Bernie was a well-respected in the financial industry, evidenced by being named chairman of the NASDAQ and by being asked to testify before congress (Bandler & Varchaver, 2009). Bernie’s brother, Peter served as the head of compliance in the legitimate trading side of the firm. While Peter was technically savvy, Bernie was anything but (Bandler & Varchaver, 2009). His computer was set up to report financial news and nothing else (Bandler & Varchaver, 2009). He didn’t have an email account, and it was said that “he could barely turn his computer on” (Bandler & Varchaver, 2009).

Bernie intently accepted large sums of funds from investors with the knowledge that he was not going to make legitimate investments with his the stackholders money. Bernie Madoff’s was conducting his business practices off of maximizing profits for himself over twenty years, which he intentialy defrauded his clients of almost sixty-five billion dollars. It is in my opinion that Bernie Madoff’s apparently knew what he was doing when he was engaging in un-ethical practices. When Madoff pled guilty to all charges in March 2009, which includes securities fraud, mail fraud, false statements, false filings with the SEC, investment advisor fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and theft from an employee benefit plan, I believe that he completely understood that his scam would be exposed at some time.

Bernard Lawrence Madoff was a well-known, respected, and beloved name in Wall Street for many years. But before the scandal and before the fame he was just an average American Joe. He was born in Queens, New York, on April 29, 1938. (Biography, 2016) His father’s name was Ralph Madoff and mother was Sylvia Madoff. He also had a brother named Peter Madoff who would later play a key role in his investment firm.

To combat this assumption it turns out large amounts of money of the value of $300million was invested in Bernard Madoff accounts in the form of pension funds. Some officials knew that the unscathed performance of Madoff securities were too good to be true as their prices consistently climbed up in spite the financial crisis. However, still they pawned its own shareholders’ funds with the hopes of jumping on the same band wagon as Madoff and reaping further profits. Another angle at probing the case was that the CEO, directors as well as executives were only looking out for themselves. Evidently they had direct benefits in the form of handsome compensation packages for retaining high profile clients such as Madoff and Wise which

At first, he handled the money of a small circle of friends and family offering them high returns with little risk. Over time, he delivered on his promises and the inner circle of investors began to grow. Jerry Reisman, a lawyer in New York who knew Madoff socially, said Madoff would approach these individuals, “In a social setting – that is where it always happened.” These

Even up to the a week and a half before confessing to his sons, Madoff scammed a 95 year old man out of $250 million, further demonstrating his lack of morality and just basic common decency. Following his admission and being turned into the authorities, investigations and interviews began and the common response was “no warning signs.” Madoff managed to deceive thousands, but many questioned the competence of the SEC and their inability to uncover what is known as the biggest Ponzi scheme in American history. In addition, the gatekeepers will have to answer to their role and how this massive scam could have been overlooked without misconduct or participation.

Bernard Madoff was born April 29th, 1928 in Queens, New York. He grew up as a son of two Jewish parents, one of which was a stockbroker. He graduated from Hofstra University in 1960 with a degree in Political Science and then moved on to attend Brooklyn Law School where he dropped out to start and pursue his own company, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC.

So how could Madoff pull off the biggest Ponzi scheme in the history of finance? The question should rather be why the SEC, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Comission, didn’t interfere with Madoff’s investment company despite receiving warning flags for almost a decade before the actual arrest. A

Madoffs hedge fund operated in secrecy. His clients were never given any information on how he achieved his returns. He would not divulge any information to the public or his clients regarding his strategy. If he was operating one of the most successful firms on Wall Street, then why did he feel the need to fly under the radar? You would have thought that he would want the public to know of his strategies so more people would invest in