Why is this man crying?
Posted: December 12th, 2008 | Author: Wayne Weddington | Filed under: Opinion | Tags: Bernard Madoff, crime, hedge funds |
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Bernard Made-Off. With $50 billion.
I have been a little surprised at the lack of coverage on Madoff’s devastating crime of fraud. The ripples from his crime will reach tsunami proportions for investors around the country and particularly in the towns of Long Island and Palm Beach.
I cannot not imagine how someone like Madoff can sleep at night. It was a scheme carried out with profound efficiency, hype and arrogance. Madoff even had a two-year waiting list to get exposure to his supposed performance. He created a ruse of scarcity value when all the while he probably “let” investors into the fund only to pay off mounting redemptions. Because of the relative “safety” of Madoff’s returns, there were many families who parked their entire life savings with the firm.
I am deeply suspicious of the rest of the family’s participation. It seems implausible that they could not have known or were not complicit. (This is a blog so I can make opinionated statements.) I have been told that Bernard’s brother, Peter, had the temerity to “show up at temple” this past Saturday, only two days after Bernard was arrested. As there were no incidents at the temple I can only applaud the restraint of his fellow congregants, many of whom, I understand, were clients. Perhaps at least one congregant might have thrown his or her shoes at Peter, as was infamously done to W this weekend in Baghdad.
Of my own experience, clients sometimes chafe at the rigor with which my Administrator scrubs a subscription for proper notary signatures, passports, character references and other identifying data. “I have invested in 20 hedge funds and no one else has asked me for this information,” they complain. But in the world of private funds, rigor, while it is cumbersome and tedious, is your best friend. I suspect that the SEC will also be found to have been negligent for not pursuing oversight of Madoff more strenuously.
-Wayne Weddington
Oy Vey!!!!!!!!!!!! Ithis story keeps getting better…… this perfect Ponzi scheme of Madoff (Made-Off) continues to fascinate the world. ….A true financial holocaust… He managed to lose or steal 50 billion dollars, which can’t be easy to do no matter how hard you try….. with a busy looking stock-trading operation occupying the 19th floor, of his building…. and the computers and paperwork of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities (his name is on the door remember!) filled the 18th floor and on the 17th floor was Bernie Madoff’s fraud center, occupied by another two dozen staff members but who must have been blinded by some sort of quantitative trading wizardry in order produce that mind-numbing 10-12%… lol ….It was called the “hedge fund” floor, where the scam was conceived…….. and nobody else knew?????????????? .not the other 2 dozen employees who worked there?????? I smell rotten lox..I actually feel bad for Charles Ponzi ..Ponzi scammers will have to change their name to “Madoff schemers”.and Mr.Ponzi will disappear into the federal prison files……. in researching more about hedge funds I came across a few books that were also fascinating… Hedge Fund Trading Secrets Revealed by Robert Dorfman… and Confessions of a Street Addict by Jim Cramer….both these books take you on a great ride about hedge funds how they make and lose millions…… and expose many other scam practices in this game. Dorfman actually teaches his strategies
lol
I would run up against Madoff’s ‘miracles’ quite a bit as well. People would say “well I am with Madoff, so I am very wary of risky hedge funds.” Madoff is the essence of the “confidence man” known as the “con man”… these are the people who actually trade on the syrupy language necessary to gain the confidence of their victims, while pretending to trade in something else. They prey on the hopes and therefore the weaknesses of the human condition. I believe it likely that he also plied his skill on the SEC… it is not plausible that after multiple warnings the SEC could not have found any evidence. There may be revelations of bribes on top of the apparent incompetence. I feel so sorry for those who were victimized by Madoff and to a large extent he preyed upon his own community.