The Bernard Madoff “Ponzi Scheme” scandal was the biggest and lasted the longest financial fraud in the history of the US. Bernard Madoff was a financial adviser, and also the former chairman of the NADAQ. He established his investment firm named “Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC” in 1960. The Madoff Fraud is a typical “Ponzi Scheme”, in order to attract investors to give money to him, he convinced people to hand over their life saving, and promised them high returns rate, and then he used these money to make payments to those earlier investors. He took the investors for a $65 billion over the course of nearly two decades. In the end, Bernard was sentenced to maximum 150 years prison life and a forfeiture of $170 billion.…
First, Bernard Madoff started a stock trading business in 1960 that was highly successful. This business consisted of buying and selling stocks that were not on the New York Stock Exchange. Conversely, once Pete Madoff came into the business, Bernard created the investment management business, which is where the fraud occurred. Bernard was a respected businessperson that served on boards and even created his own foundation. In the financial industry, Bernard Madoff was a powerful person with several…
1. What unhealthy motivations drove Madoff to defraud investors and betray his friends? The motivation is selfishness. This is based on noted greed (extravagant lifestyle and the need to continuously take more money), narcissism (feeling of entitlement and ignoring welfare of others), and Machiavellianism (manipulation of others for self-gain, creating positive impressions while he gets what he wants).…
Bernie Madoff is known as The Great Ponzi. Bernie Madoff is a former American businessman,…
Professional auditing standards discuss the three key “conditions” that are typically present when a financial fraud occurs and identify a lengthy list of “fraud risk factors.” Briefly explain the difference between a fraud “condition” and a “fraud risk factors,” and provide examples of each. What fraud conditions and fraud risk factors were apparently present in the Madoff case?…
In addition to The Economic Entity Assumption was a principle that continued to be violated throughout Madoffs operations. Transactions have to be recorded correctly while booking, including keeping certain transactions separated if its not related to the business. You should never mix your personal transaction with your business transactions. However, Madoff was no stranger to breaking this accounting principle. He over the years he made several transactions that would be considered unethical, because funds for business was used for personal use. accounting rule. In the article "Too Good to Be True" "Madoff began regularly wiring money to the London office to pay for personal luxuries. He purchased the $7 million Leopard Yacht in the…
Bernie Madoff held numerous high profile positions in the stock market community. I would even go as far as to label him as the master of networking. After graduating from Hofstra College, he marries his high school sweetheart, and proceeds to work for his father-in-law’s accounting firm as an investment advisor (Gaviria, Smith, & McCoy, 2009). As Madoff’s trading business grows over the next several years, he joins multiple committees as he begins to fight for regulatory changes in order to make trades easier and more convenient, not to mention he had been in business for decades. This gives Bernie Madoff the persona that he is educated, responsible, and respectable; which leads his to be trusted by many investors. (Ferrell, Fraedrich, &…
Bernard L. Madoff (Bernie) is still making news headlines. He is currently incarcerated for numerous illegal and unethical behaviors. I am going to: Describe three types of illegal business behavior alleged against Bernie and explain how the behavior is illegal or unethical. Name three types of parties who were impacted by the actions of Bernie and how. Describe three business safeguards that may have prevented the harm caused by Bernie. Describe three ways investors might have better protected themselves from risk. Describe three legal actions that possibly may be brought against Bernie under criminal or civil law. And provide an analysis…
One hundred and fifty years in prison. Shame brought to his family for bankrupting so many friends. Suicide by his son. These are the costs Bernie Madoff incurred for running a decades-long Ponzi scheme that appropriated an estimated $18 billion from investors. If Madoff was just maximizing his income, then why did so many cheer when he did the "perp…
The Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme was life altering for numerous individuals who trusted in Madoff with their life savings and hard-earned wealth. Although the original scandal made headline news over eight years ago lawsuits and other remnants still remain. In 2013, one of largest organizations that people believe contributed the J.P. Morgan (JPM) agreed to settlement with a onetime payment of $billion dollars (J.P. Morgan Chase Will Have To Pay A Fine, 2013). Although many believe that JPM was the blame for not breaking the news of the Ponzi scheme sooner due to obvious red flags related the Madoff laundering money in and out of accounts held at the bank, JPM has still taking the stance that they were not to blame. Furthermore, in 2015, another…
One of the most well known schemer and criminal of the white collar field was Bernie Madoff. The chameleon created an impression of being a nice and caring person at work, but ironically, deep down inside he was a deranged money hungry criminal. Many people could not believe the news they were hearing after he had confessed to the crimes he committed because he was really good at hiding the true person he was. He was a master at impression management. Quoted from Diana Goldberg “He was a hero to us, the head of NASDAQ. We were proud of everything he had accomplished”. They believed in him, he gained everyone’s trust by manipulating…
One of the reasons Madoff was able to perpetrate his fraud for so long was his preference for marketing his investment business by word of mouth. Until the scam's later years, people heard about it from friends. It was a private club, one that, famously, became only more desirable because of Madoff's seeming reluctance to admit new investors. One of the tacit conditions, as we know now, was an understanding that information about Madoff investments -- including their existence was to be held closely. Most…
In court, he stated that he began by promising strong returns even though the stock market was not doing very well and the country was in a recession during the 90’s. Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC was his firm that was used to con thousands of people out of their money, some of the funds provided by his customers were, life savings or retirement funds. Madoff was not shy to admit that he knew the day…
The issue of whether HSBC had an adequately incredible and essential effect in revealing Bernie Madoff is very controversial. However, after very careful consideration, I believe that HSBC’s role had a sufficiently great and important impact in uncovering Bernie Madoff.…
Bernie Madoff was a thief, plain and simple. He was a greedy, selfish, self-indulgent con artist, no different from any other grifter that you meet, except because of who he was, he was able to pull the con off on a grander scale. Madoff used his name and position and the legitimacy of his first business to draw people into his Ponzi scheme (like a pyramid scheme where one takes money from newer clients to pay older clients). He misrepresented (the kinder word) or lied (if you want the truthful description) to his friends and clients from the beginning and as later documented in his allocution, he never invested any of the money he got. It would have been different if this scheme formed from some bad business decisions and he did this in response to that and was trying to save some of his client’s money, but it wasn’t. Madoff originally provided his clients the 10-12% returns on investment that he offered, but it appears that with the increase in funds, the persons that benefitted the most from the Ponzi scheme was Madoff and his family. They all shared in an expensive and lavish lifestyle bordering on the garish with its excesses. He appeared to hire incompetent people so no one would be the wiser to what he was doing which was a disservice to his clientele. He also appeared to have used some of his misbegotten gains and infused them into his legitimate business therefore, putting it at risk. Nepotism was rampant in Madoff’s business which is why many people believe his family had to be involved more than just the sons and the confession of the scheme.…