SMRs and AMRs

Thursday, December 11, 2008

$50-Billion Ponzi scheme

Prominent Trader Accused of Defrauding Clients
By DIANA B. HENRIQUES and ZACHERY KOUWE
NYT

Bernard L. Madoff, a legend among Wall Street traders, was arrested on Thursday morning by federal agents and charged with criminal securities fraud stemming from his company’s money management business.

The arrest and criminal complaint were confirmed just before 6 p.m. Thursday by Lev L. Dassin, the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan, and Mark Mershon, the assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

According to the complaint, Mr. Madoff advised colleagues at the firm on Wednesday that his investment advisory business was “all just one big lie” that was “basically, a giant Ponzi scheme” that, by his estimate, had lost $50 billion over many years.

Related accusations were made in a lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in federal court in Manhattan. That complaint accuses Mr. Madoff of defrauding advisory clients of his firm and seeks emergency relief to protect potential victims, including an asset freeze and the appointment of a receiver for the firm.

(More here.)

1 Comments:

Anonymous Steve said...

Have you watched the video/advertisement for GAVI (which is posted on the right side of your blog under "Good Guys")? They propose a return on business investments for shipping vaccines overseas. Hmmm...a return on consumable goods? Sounds like a Ponzi scheme... The original investors will receive "dividends" from the next contributors...

Also, they CLAIM they have saved 3 million children's lives. How are they measuring their results? Did they conduct a study to assess mortality rates before AND after their intervention??? Or did they instead just go in there shooting up kids and make an ASSUMPTION that 50 shots = 1 saved child? Show me some SCIENCE to back up their statistics and I'll be one impressed NON-investor.

12:19 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home