The rich who lunched at the Palm Beach Country club in a panic

[lovuian]

this is really a Depression when the rich who supported and voted for Bush get taken to the cleaners

Welcome to the Poor house chumps...get ready to get the dollar burger at burger King


http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article5333901.ece

"investors came from the enormously wealthy enclaves of Palm Beach, Florida and Long Island, New York, where people had invested billions in Mr Madoff’s firm for decades. He was a fixture on the Palm Beach social scene, and was a member of some of its most exclusive clubs, including the Palm Beach Country Club and Boca Rio Golf Club, where he drummed up much of his business."

[malaise]

1. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch

NO tears here.

[lovuian]

3. Bush screwed them on his way out ...they all wanted Deregulation

so they could richer and richer and now they got all the riches stolen

:rofl:

there is irony here

[roguevalley]

41. I've been poor and I know how to be poor again if I have to. They

don't. It will be worse for them. Too bad, so sad.

[DS1]

2. notice it's a UK article

the US would never report this

[lovuian]

4. I don't look on US papers anymore they just

are propoganda and lies

[FlaGranny]

30. This was big news yesterday

in the Palm Beach Post, but I haven't seen anything national.

[bklyncowgirl]

31. New York Times had a big aritcle. nt

[boomerbust]

5. I can smell

A little TARP money coming his way.

[lovuian]

6. Maybe Jeb Bush will beg for his constituents I doubt it

Bush's like to take the rich's money just as well as the poors

[stillcool]

7. It'll be interesting to see what kind of ...

fine, jail time he gets. Former Nasdaq stock chairman and all. Maybe Bush can give him a pardon..and the Congress can bail out the investors.

[lovuian]

8. A Pardon that will be it ... He definitely was a Bush buddy

what the rich don't get is Bush is going to take their money as he leaves

[arikara]

19. Says he can get 10 years and 5 million dollar fine

for stealing 50 billion. Relatively speaking, the more you steal, the smaller the consequences.

This part makes me laugh... "His lawyer, Dan Horwitz, said that his client was “a person of integrity."

[charlie]

20. Yep

I steal $10,000 and I get fined $1 and go to jail for 10 minutes. As if.

Nick Leeson is currently CEO of an Irish football club. Paint Department Manager at a Walmart would be an impossible dream for me after a 10 grand larceny.

[girl gone mad]

23. Maybe he stocked enough of it away..

he can flee to Switzerland or Israel like Marc Rich did and he can convince Eric Holder to lobby Obama for a pardon.

[charlie]

26. I dunno if he has that option

The business was a family affair. Whoever gets left behind gets the screws put to him.

Since a big chunk of his clientele was Jewish, I'm sure the Israelis have already gotten an earful about the trouble they'll see if he spends more than 10 minutes off the plane without getting his dumb ass extradited.

Swiss banks are currently leveraged to the tune of 9 times GDP. I'll bet they're not keen on pissing off the US feds when the health of their economy depends so much on the success of the US bailouts.

If he bolts, he'll have to go someplace nasty, with a dictator he can buy off.

[WhiteTara]

35. I smell Phil Gramm n/t

[stillcool]

42. Don't you have that a little ass backwards?...

why do you think Holder "lobbied" to get Marc Rich a pardon? I haven't read that anywhere. Did Eric Holder know Marc Rich? Did Eric Holder get the same quid pro quo (contributions) that the Clinton's got as a result or possibility of that pardon?

Will the Marc Rich Pardon Hinder Eric Holder's Confirmation?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/12/02/ST2008120203450.html
The suggestion that Eric Holder is not qualified to serve as attorney general because of his involvement in President Bill Clinton's pardon of financier Marc Rich is wrongheaded. As deputy attorney general, Holder did his job, which was to assist the president in exercising the pardon power vested in the president by the Constitution. While Marc Rich's pardon was distasteful, it was squarely within Clinton's constitutional powers. Any blame for pardoning Rich must rest with Clinton alone. Every attorney general must be prepared to stand up to a president who proposes to break the law, but it is not the attorney general's role to hinder a president's exercise of his plenary powers as chief executive.

It is time to end the Washington "gotcha" games, especially the one in which the lawyers get blamed for the policy sins of their superiors. Bill Clinton's mistakes should not be exploited to sabotage Barack Obama's administration. I expect to disagree with Holder on many issues. He is, however, an honorable man with superb legal and managerial credentials, and Barack Obama, as any president, is entitled to wide latitude in assembling his team.

[Dover]

27. TimesOnline story discusses how he did it for several decades.

World’s richest hit by Bernard Madoff

...Horlick said last night that the affair had raised “fundamental questions” about the regulatory system. She added: “It is astonishing that this apparent fraud seems to have been continuing for so long, possibly for decades. The Madoff business has been subject to due diligence by many of the most experienced professionals in the global markets . . . yet it seems that criminal activity has continued unfettered and undetected.”

Horlick claimed that Madoff’s advisers said the firm had been subjected to a full-scale investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission twice in the past two years. She also stressed that international accountancy firms had been auditing funds with exposures to Madoff.

..snip..

“There was extensive due diligence being conducted on the funds by our advisers, who are part of Man Group. He must have been matching the amount of money he paid out to what would have happened had he followed the strategy that he said he was following.”

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article5337735.ece



It seems Enron's fraud was just the canary in the coal mine.

[charlie]

29. Here's a profile of Madoff from 7 years ago

(a PDF, unfortunately)

http://nakedshorts.typepad.com/files/madoff.pdf

They marvel over the seeming voodoo he manages to pull off day in and out. Thing is, the subtext of the whole article is that whatever he's doing, it can't be straight arrow. They knew back then. But who's gonna argue with juicy 15% returns that come as regularly as the sunrise? Certainly not the "smart money" set.

[annabanana]

9. How does it feel ,you powdered turds?

no pity here

[FarCenter]

10. I Knew Bernie Madoff Was Cheating, That's Why I Invested with Him

"So why did these smart and skeptical investors keep investing? They, like many Madoff investors, assumed Madoff was somehow illegally trading on information from his market-making business for their benefit. They didn't consider the possibility that he was clean on that score but running a good old-fashioned Ponzi scheme."

From I Knew Bernie Madoff Was Cheating, That's Why I Invested with Him
http://finance.yahoo.com/techticker/article/145115/I-Knew-Bernie-Madoff-Was-Cheating,-That's-Why-I-Invested-with-Him

[nichomachus]

33. So, they knew he was a crook, but they didn't know he was stealing from them

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[OswegoAtheist]

11. My offer to anyone making over $1M/yr.

and has the audacity to complain about hardship: I will buy you a free bottle of wine and a liter of gas.

Oswego "You'll never be cold another winter!" Atheist

[Donnachaidh]

12. my heart bleeds

:nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity:

[lib2DaBone]

13. These are Jeb's Base.. the Idle Rich and Trust Babies...

The wealthy , the politically connected. $25,000 per plate..no problem.....

http://www.marcoeagle.com/news/2004/apr/23/ndn_traffic_a_concern_as_bush_visit_expected_to_sn/?printer=1/

[Mari333]

14. *if it looks too good to be true, it probably isnt *

some scams are little, some are big. From nigerian email scams to ponzi scams people let greed override their common sense.

[NJCher]

15. It's the end of the line

This and other Ponzi schemes are coming to light now because it's time for somebody to "hold the bag." Everyone's cashing in their chips now and ooopsy doopsy!! ...nothing left!

I read the coverage in the NY Times and from that it sounded like a lot of hedge funds are getting shafted. Cry me a river for those people because a major purpose of hedge funds is to avoid taxes.

In another major financial scandal, the NY lawyer Drier is now locked up with no bail. He got caught up in Canada and one of his last business meetings was with the manager of some teachers' retirement funds.



Cher

[earth mom]

16. I suppose this dude wants a bailout too.

:eyes:

And all I can say is what I've been saying about Wall Street for months = Wall Street is nothing but a god damn pyramid scheme. And this proves it. :pukes:

[earth mom]

17. self delete

[earth mom]

18. Why don't they call it for what it is? A pyramid scheme. Guess Karma bit them in the a$$!

:evilgrin:

[DainBramaged]

21. I can see those boxes of Cuban cigars being hawked on street corners now

$5, genuine Cuban cigars, $5.

[IMPERIUM V]

22. Hopefully they can find some good, honest, life affirming work in the service sector soon!

[Laelth]

40. Welcome to DU!

The United States is a LIBERAL Country.

:dem:

-Laelth

[Dover]

24. The Hedge and Financial Firms Were The Captains of the Titanic

and our politicians sold the tickets.

We are currently arranging the deck chairs...

[Dover]

25. Our entire financial system is a Ponzi Scheme. We've ALL been taken to the cleaners

one way or another.

[bklyncowgirl]

32. What's the difference between this crook and the "legitimate" bankers trading in derivatives swaps?

Both were a fraud. I suppose this guy went over some sort of line but it seems that large parts of our financial markets were built on foundations no more substantial than this "Ponzi Scheme"

My guess is he will be the scapegoat for the sins of our financial class--which means he'll get a few years at Club Fed--or check out permanently pre-incarceration like Kenny Boy Lay.

(Not that I really believe that Ken Lay is actually dead. Maybe he can find the perpetrators of this fraud a nice ranch down in Paraguay)

[Selatius]

44. The difference is the bankers changed to law to make what they were doing legal.

First you make it legal. Then you screw over people.

[OneBlueSky]

28. don't you mean the "formerly rich?" . . . n/t

.

[The Backlash Cometh]

34. Thanks for the chuckle.

It's always tempting to put all the rich into one bowel and assume they're safely staying above the rising waters.

[Are_grits_groceries]

36. How do the "enormously rich" panic?

Do they sell an extra house or cut a week of of their 3 month excursion on some little known island?
Do they have to get extra botox because of more worry wrinkles?
Do they "think" about dusting on the offchance they might have to do it?
Do they know how to dust or is that just some vague term to them?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[lovuian]

37. they hate to lose a nickel

Jupiter Island is convulsing right now

[bluedawg12]

38. They send the maid out to scream on the back tennis court.

[Are_grits_groceries]

39. DUzy!

:rofl:

[Selatius]

43. They become so tight-assed that they shit diamonds regularly. nt