Major City frauds uncovered by police

[emad]

Major City frauds uncovered by police

Detectives and SFO reveal inquiry into big 'Ponzi' scheme and several 'mini-Madoffs'

By Robert Verkaik and Mark Hughes
Thursday, 5 March 2009

A spate of Bernard Madoff-style scams that threaten to bring misery to thousands of investors is being investigated by police and the Serious Fraud Office, The Independent has learnt. Bogus investment schemes have been uncovered by investigators focusing on crime resulting from the credit crunch.


One senior officer has called them "mini-Madoffs", a reference to the US fund manager Bernard Madoff, who is accused of profiting from a £30bn pyramid investment fraud – or Ponzi scheme – which paid investors returns from their own money, or cash paid by subsequent investors, rather than from the scheme's profits. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is still investigating Mr Madoff's activities in Britain.

In an interview with The Independent, Richard Alderman, the director of the SFO, said he expected other alleged cases of "fraud on investors" to be made public soon. One allegedly involves a "big Ponzi" fraud, similar to that used by Mr Madoff, he added, without revealing further details of the case.

The SFO is also offering advice on how to avoid falling victim to a Ponzi scam. Mr Alderman said: "Clearly, in view of our interest in Bernie Madoff and Sir Allen Stanford , people are talking to us about red flags for hedge funds, because as the stories unravel it is very interesting to understand the structure of what happened and what could have been picked up by people through due diligence."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/major-city-frauds-uncovered-by-police-1637707.html

[B Whale]

1. The problem with focussing on individuals in this way

anger is focussed at the fred goodwins etc as scapegoats for the whole mess. Villians, crooks, bandits. When in fact the system is rotten. We can't just jail a couple of people and go back to normal