Why The Failure Of Madoff's Financial Scheme

Bernie Madoff began his career as an investment broker in 1960, where he legally bought and sold over-the-counter stocks not listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). From the 1960’s through the 1990’s, Madoff’s success and business grew substantially, mainly from a closed circle of known investors and friends through word of mouth. In the 1990’s Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities traded up to 10 percent of the NASDAQ on any given day. With the success of the securities business, Madoff started an illegal money-management business, promising his investors consistent returns from 10-12 percent, unheard of returns at the time, which should have tipped off most investors that something was amiss.

What is right or wrong? People base their values of right and wrong on what they have learned from their experiences (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2018). What one person sees as wrong, may be a normal for another. Most people are taught to work hard, save money, and invest for a future retirement. However, when it comes to money, some people lose all principles and standards of behavior. There were several ethical issues in the Madoff case. They include: stealing, cheating, lying, misrepresentation, and deliberate deception. Madoff used the Ponzi scheme or the money pyramid to make his money. In the Ponzi scheme, money was taken from new investors and given to existing customers as earning without being invested. Was this right or wrong? Throughout this case study ethical concerns can be seen on both sides, the investors and Madoff’s.

Bernie Madoff, the founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, ran one of the biggest schemes in history. Bernie Madoff stole $65 billion dollars from his investors over the course of two decades. He stole money from victims such as Steven Spielberg, Kevin Bacon, Carl Shapiro, thousands of wealthy retirees, charities, and supposedly sophisticated financial firms. He convinced them to give him their money by falsely promising profits in return. He was caught in December 2008 and pleaded guilty in March 2009. He was charged with 11 counts of fraud, money laundering, perjury, and theft. He was arrested and is now facing 150 years in prison. The people caught working with him on this scheme were five of his employees , his accountant and

On Dec. 11, 2008, Bernard Lawrence Madoff confessed that his vaunted investment business was all "one big lie," a Ponzi scheme colossal in volume and scope that cost investors $65 billion. Overnight, Madoff became the new poster child for Wall Street gall, greed and

In the 1960s Bernie Madoff was hard worker known for creating one of the largest buying/selling market in NASDAQ. He rose from a penny stock trader to becoming a stockbroker, financial advisor, then chairman of the NADDAQ. But, from December 11, 2008 to present day, Bernie Madoff will be remember in history as the man who pull of the largest Ponzi scheme. Madoff was to make $50 billion disappear in this scheme, by using new investors’ money to pay out old investors. After numerous tips about how Madoff conducted business the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chose to investigate. The SECs investigation included searching through fabricated trading records of which no evidence was found to support the claim. It wasn’t until another

The majority of Wall Street trusted Madoff, and this included the biggest names on Wall Street. This is because of the 47-year career on Wall Street that Madoff had, and the reputation he built with business techniques that streamlined the execution of trades for other investment companies. His reputation was so respected that his firm was responsible for handling more trading volume on Wall Street than any other firm aside from Nasdaq. Madoff was so trusted and respected that at one point he was made chairman of the exchange. Greed was intertwined with this trust through the fact that no one cared enough on Wall Street if the money continued to flow, investors

Bernie Madoff started his own market maker firm in 1960 and was an influential individual in the startup of the Nasdaq stock market. He also was on the board of National Association of Securities Dealers and an advisor to the Securities and Exchange Commission on trading securities. This extensive and impressive background in the investment industry allowed him to build and maintain the largest known Ponzi scheme is United States history. Under this Ponzi scheme, Madoff used the money coming in from new investors to pay the previous investors the promised 50% returns in 90 days. Investors would buy into Madoff’s investment plans and invest more money while more investors would join. The exact start date of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme is unknown,

Typically, you had to know someone who had done business with or had relations to Madoff for him to accept business with you. The social feedback loop allowed people to feel the investment was safe because everyone was doing it and talking about it. In the end, Madoff was very confident and what the investors thought was a trustworthy man. Individuals were easily recruited for years because they were promised a fast dollar and they felt it was safe to invest in him. The overall image of Madoff and the perfect timing (while the Stock Market was doing well) made him such a successful fraudster in his Ponzi

Bernie Madoff used a Ponzi scheme which lures investors by guaranteeing astronomical returns using unorthodox “investment strategies” with the hopes that, both the investor base will grow exponentially and the returns will not be called upon sparingly (Yang, 2014). For Madoff, the unsustainability of the Ponzi scheme began to unravel when Madoff presented $200-$300 million albeit, his clients” request for $7 billion in returns (Yang, 2014). Therefore, it is logical to suspect that Madoff’s financial figures both documented and reported were compromised; an observation alluded to by a Madoff associate, Mr. DiPascali, who according sources, admitted to manipulating the returns of several clients, jiggering them up or down -- phantom gains added

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

All of that money is assumed to be gone”. Others try to pinpoint just how did Mr. Madoff lose all of that money? Most really don’t know and can’t say for sure. According to the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Madoff indicated that he traded stocks and options through European counterparties, instead of his own trading firm,. But the records reveal that investigators don’t believe that to be true. There is no evidence that Mr. Madoff lost or made large sums of money on good or bad trades, or that he traded at all. In some recent cases of spectacular losses, the causes were clear. There were wrong-way bets on oil prices, for instance, or mortgages that turned out to be toxic, but there is no indication that Mr. Madoff made any such bets. Nor are there signs that he simply wasted the money on a lavish life style. While he did enjoy a lifestyle of the rich and famous life, he owned a stock-trading business that could have provided him with enough money to fund it. Many have asked if there is any money left over to repay all of the swindled investors. Since most don 't know if he lost any money or how much he ever had, investigators don 't know what might be leftover, or where it might be. Investigators in the SEC and in the Securities Investor Protection Corp. are looking for the money by trying to follow the money trail. However it is probably safe to say if he was smart enough to outsmart thousands of investors out of their money, he is probably smart

It is almost impossible to conclude or prevent individuals from being unethical, especially when billions of dollars are being transferred daily. Furthermore, people seem to always find a way to maneuver around standards and regulations when money is involved. Also, the continuous creation of new technology allows people with the mindset of a Madoff the ability to avoid detection from his or her criminal behavior for some time. Without the help of federal regulators, a person like Madoff should not have had the opportunity to run a Ponzi scheme of this magnitude for so long. Moreover, federal regulators of the SEC were created to protect investors and these investors depend on the system developed by the SEC to uncover fraudulent behavior in a timely manner. “Madoff had attracted a wide following because he delivered consistently high returns with very low volatility over a long period. He claimed to use a split-strike conversion strategy to obtain these low-risk returns” (Bernard, & Boyle, 2009, p. 62).

Madoff was able to align himself with wealthy individuals, leaders involved in foundations, business entities, and government. This gave him unlimited access to different groups of investors. Among Madoff’s Ponzi scheme victims, it is easy to find wealthy individuals, charitable organizations, and its stakeholders, such as employees, communities, vendors, and even the government.

Your point about Madoff scheme purposely avoiding scrutiny cannot be understated. Madoff encouraged investors from all over the world to invest in his hedge fund rather than the traditional mutual funds which according to Armsrtong (2008) was ingenious due to the fact that hedge funds generate higher returns owing to different compensation structures  and relative freedom from excessive government intervention and regulation. I believe through Madoff's experience, he was able to mitigate scrutiny on two fronts-the investors and the SEC. In fact keeping both stakeholders distracted was the underlying factor of his short lived success as is most fraudsters.

Introducing Bernard L. Madoff born April 29, 1938 in Queens, NY and is presently serving a one hundred fifty-year prison sentence. Who is this fraudster Bernard L Madoff also known as “Bernie” and what fraud did he commit? Bernie’s parents Ralph and Sylvia Madoff were Polish immigrants struggling and working during the Great Depression Era. In later years, his mother worked in finance as a broker-dealer for their company Gibraltar Securities. The SEC eventually forced the business to close due to non-reporting issues regarding the businesses financial condition. Around age twenty-two, Bernie Madoff started his own investment firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC and was