No Evidence Madoff traded a single share for clients...

[katty]

more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jan/16/madoff-ponzi-scheme-investor-shares


EXCERPT:

"Our investigations of Bernard Madoff's broker dealership showed no evidence that any shares were ever traded on behalf of his investment advisory business," a spokesman for Finra said, adding that the regulator had been looking at his books since 1960.

Clients of Madoff's investment advisory business received statements that showed hundreds if not thousands of trades made by the brokerage every year. Richard Rampell, an accountant from Florida who had several clients who were victims of Madoff's alleged scam, saw dozens of statements.

"Everything I saw on those statements told me that Madoff was clearing his own trades. There was no third party mentioned on any of those statements," Rampell said. "Different firms do things differently. For example, if I saw a statement from Bear Sterns, it would show that the trades were cleared by a third party like Goldman Sachs. If I saw a statement from Merrill Lynch, it would show that the trades were cleared in house. Madoff's statements were just like Merrill Lynch statements. They showed the trades were cleared by his own firm."

Rampell saw his first Madoff statement in 1985, describing it as "just incredible"

[Happyhippychick]

1. What's even more incredible is that this asshole was reported 18 times and nobody took it seriously.

[fed_up_mother]

2. Friends in high places

Ya' know?

[Happyhippychick]

10. Yes, his niece is shtupping some SEC guy.

[katty]

3. yes, even more

[kirby]

4. So he cannot be charged with securities fraud...

Since he never traded any...

Interesting...

[formercia]

7. He must have charged 'fees' for even the 'internal trades.'

No fee trade? What a deal.

[lapfog_1]

5. But to clear all of those trades

wouldn't Madoff's firm have to have hundreds of thousands if not millions of clients?

For a firm that had word of mouth advertising and a fairly exclusive client list, seeing a statement that all of my trades were cleared internally would have set my alarm bells ringing.

I know, most people just look at the bottom line and see the profit/loss, but with millions of dollars invested in "good ol' Bernie" you would think that one of his clients would have had a auditing firm look over each statement... and they should have said "uhhh... this doesn't smell right... and look at Madoff's accounting firm, a very small firm with, apparently, only one client... I think you should reduce your exposure here!"

[alstephenson]

8. Greed. eom

[katty]

9. alarms bells did go off, re: Bank o' Bernie

and those alarms were not acted upon-friends in high places.

[lapfog_1]

11. I was thinking of alarm bells at the clients

or their financial advisers.

Ones that would say "Listen, we don't think everything here is exactly as it seems, why don't you/we close your account or reduce it substantially?"

After the account is mostly closed, then alert the various agencies about the potential crime taking place.

If enough clients had done that (whether the agencies did anything or not), the ponzi scheme collapses because Bernie couldn't pay out the closures (and, I'm sure, some clients were at least taking some of the "profits" off the table)...

[katty]

12. yes, clearly they were very satisfied-didn't want to rock the boat

[sam sarrha]

6. why is he still lose, laughing at everybody..??