Madoff’s team knew what they were doing?
Ofcourse they did you would probably say; and they did it well. Ponzi 2.0 (see earlier post) could not have been not an ‘one man show’. Remember how the fraud was uncovered? His associates (who by the way were his sons) demanded an explanation of the financial situation in the firm. It was not until that moment in December 2008 that Madoff revealed to his sons that they have been working for the highest dollar value and longest running Ponzi scheme ever. At least that is the version that was presented to the world. His sons reported Madoff Sr. to the authorities. I was not the only one to put some questions around that scenario; would it be that Madoff Sr. took the blame to take the pressure off his sons?
Today CNN reported that a securities investigator testified in a CT court that Madoff’s associates knew there was a fraud going on but joined anyway because of the vast amount of money they could earn by playing the game along. According to the securities investigator anyone with at least a bit of knowledge would have had to ignore all fraud red flags deliberately. So even though they could not oversee the extent of the fraud, they certainly could have noticed that something was not quite right. And subsequently did nothing else than collect their paychecks and bonuses. The financial world was a different place in December 2008?
In the meanwhile the repossession of Madoff family assets has begun. A ‘notice of intent to seek forfeiture’ obtained by Fox News states that “promissory notes executed by sons Andrew Madoff and/or Mark Madoff, as borrowers, in favor of Bernard L. Madoff and/or Ruth Madoff, as lender(s) and/or assignee(s),” are also subject to forfeiture, and the sons may owe the government $31.5 million in total.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/04/01/madoff.funds.frozen/index.html
