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Madoff, A Powerful And Revered Man By Wall Street

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Bernie Madoff, a once powerful and revered man by Wall Street experts pled guilty on March 12th, 2009 to the largest Ponzi scheme in history. Bernie Madoff was a very intelligent man who correctly predicted that the buying and selling of stock would be computerized. He was able to generate a unique system that provided better prices that attracted new clientele. Madoff was known as a major player and earned a great reputation from Wall Street executives as a financial wizard. The reputation of his engagement and involvement in industry organizations eventually lead him in becoming a nonexecutive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market in the early 1990’s. His success and reputation enabled his company, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, to prosper and grow. Madoff targeted specific elite groups of investors, creating a prestigious reputation and making investors believe that they were members of an exclusive club. The reputation of his prestigious firm continued to grow by declining many requests to accepting new investors. His marketing strategy worked and attracted many more new investors. Although his account statements were pure fiction, his prominence and strategically cultivated image kept investors from questioning his success and methods. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme was very complex and operated on major scale. Typically scam artist would take money from new “investors” and use it to pay off existing investors. Eventually the scheme ends when there are no new

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