Disgraced financier Bernie Madoff offered a partial mea culpa for his massive Ponzi scheme today, telling reporters that he blamed his "youth and immaturity" for his poor judgment in the matter.
"You have to understand, when this scheme really got out of hand I was only a lad in my sixties," Mr. Madoff said.
Reflecting on his role in the fraud, which wound up bilking $50 billion from unwitting investors, Mr. Madoff said, "I think I felt under pressure to become the biggest scumbag of all time."
But Mr. Madoff pleaded for understanding, explaining, "You do all kinds of crazy things when you're at an impressionable age like 60 or 61."
In the interest of "giving something back," Mr. Madoff said he hoped to make a tour of investment houses and warn brokers in their forties and fifties against starting Ponzi schemes of their own: "I want to get to them while they're still kids."
In other business news, GM and Chrysler revealed their rescue plans, which call for the two 
auto giants to stop making cars and become banks instead.
After reviewing the size of the bailouts that the government has offered to the nation's banks, GM chairman Rick Wagoner said, "Only a total loser would keep making cars."
The CEOs of GM and Chrysler said that in their first official act as banks they would award themselves $10 million bonuses and fly to the Cayman Islands.
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94 comments:
Good old Wall Street, the home of plutocratic America.
I can imagine their thought process now: "Well, Madoff's not getting any of our money, and as to the American sheeple...well, that is what they are for, eh?".
They're too busy conspiring with our government to keep skimming wealth off the ordinary citizens. If some of the bzillionaires would give up some of their spoils, maybe the country would begin to rebound. I have zero sympathy for these fat cats who say cutting salaries will create a brain drain. I submit, only criminals would have done what did for their own greed.
How far can you trust a Wall Street broker? How far can you throw a grand piano? That's how far you can trust a Wall Street broker.
Harry Markopolos included the names of others on wall street he personally knew, who agreed with him that Madoff's alleged performance numbers were too good to be true, and hence fraudulent. He gave this information, and the names, to Meaghen Cheung, who the SEC in NY had chosen to pursue Markopolos' tip. All she had to do was dial the phone to confirm what Markopolos had told her.
SHE DID NOTHING!!!
So it's the SEC that did not do its job, not the people on wall street who had suspicions.
the wall street guys got together to back de-regulation --they could easily have gotten together to urge investigation of madoff. it was all a matter of motivation.
if you suspect someone of murder, report it and the police never show up, you just go, oh ok? Or you call again and again and again and again. People lost $50 Billion dollars to Madoff because Wall Street cronies looked the other way. Unaccpetable, unprofessional and its a crime for it not to be illegal.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has betrayed Americans' trust and sold investors down the river repeatedly!
Is it even appropriate for them to be calling attention to a competitor simply because the returns look fishy?
Obviously, that's a clear sign. If it's too good to be true, it probably isn't true.
But enough to initiate investigation?
It depends on whether your concern is an honest industry, or you accept an anything goes as long as you get away with it approach to business. The financial industry was government de-regulated with the pledge that it would carefully monitor itself. It seems that reporting suspicion of a crime involving BILLIONS was an obligation, not an option. He would not have been sent to jail based on a complaint, but investigated. How else can fraud be uncovered and prevented?
Senior Wall St execs were convinced Madoff was a fraud yet said nothing????????
another reason to throw these creeps in the deepest, darkest dungeons.
parasites.
Why isn't Madoff butt-sitting in a Jail Cell?
It is likely because he knows to0 much and is negotiating for special treatment. He is weighing whether he will gain more for himself by "spilling the beans" on all of Wall Street corruption, or keeping quiet. The inside buzz is that MANY WALL STREET EXECS ARE LIVING IN FEAR OF WHAT Madoff knows, and working day and night to keep him happy and quiet.
Well, they were not obligated to report what they only 'suspect', however, they are all creeps as far as I am concerned.
The SEC is the one who is to be blamed.
Why are they not obligated? They may not currently be legally required to do it, but they are ethically bound. If you suspect someone of murder, robbery, child molestation, arson, medical malpractice, etc. are you not obligated to report it?
Ethics? Wall Street Execs? GM and Chrysler CEOs? Pu-leeze.
Right. I can see why doc lumped them all together on the same blog. White collar criminals at best!
GM asks for more billions, and at the same time announces lay-offs of over 46,000.
What's wrong here, I ask.
I was for helping the big 3 out. Now I am totally against it. Let 'em go under. Spend the money to support the workers and in the meanwhile create a company that will build cars for the future. Rehire the folks that lose their jobs now. May take a while but better than throwing good money after bad.
I gotta say that any bailout had to include job protection, but apparently they are doing a mass layoff, which puts them somewhere along the lines of the Wall Street crooks. Either way, regular folk get fucked.
Good grief..its like the MAFIA took over this country....but I don't think they would even be this corrupt.
Now we know..how Madoff got away with it for so long...and I fear we have just hit the tip of the ice burg.
Wait till its found out where Madoff hid his "billions"...
Now that the Golden Goose has stopped laying eggs, no one in the banking sector wants to voluntarily apply for the Witness Protection program. Moreover, if bankers knew about Madoff while the SEC was waiting for Bush and Cheney to leave town, there must be a lot more rot in the apple barrel.
Madoff is not a dummy. He will probably negotiate a package to help the feds uncover rampant fraud throughout the industry [and regulatory agencies], and spend the rest of his life in a posh estate somewhere in South America.
The only reason I can think of that other banking execs would hold their collective tongues is that they have more to hide than their own now-benign misdeeds.
What is so frustrating is that the "protection money" still being paid in and batted around is our 401K dollars. We should be thankful that Dubya wasn't able to push social security to Wall Street to gobble up.
All of the european ultra rich are stockpiling gold bullion and military grade weaponry. Do you think they know something that we don't?
The United States has become a third world nation, filled with undereducated consumers who have no idea the depth or severity of this crisis.
Save your money.
The Hallmark of American Capitalism, Greed and Cowardice. I'd like to thank all the upstanding businessmen and women who have contributed to this mess because their only concern was their own butt.
Madoff, Wall Street, GM & Chrysler CEOs .... corrupt bastards all. We need to find some way to hold them all accountable or just fire/imprison all their asses and start over.
The taxpayers knew these people are crooked. The government knew those people were crooked. Why are we being forced to aid and abet these greedy self serving crooks who despise working people. I worry about adequate oversight in this stimulus package. There are still too few honorable people and too many crooks still running our financial institutions.
They were given the okay on this unethical behavior by the WH under Bush and Cheney. Remember when the energy brokers were caught on tape talking about their unethical behavior in the 30 billion dollar energy cost scam on California utilities?
CA is a blue state and the oil companies were WH friends. CA asked for relief and Cheney straight up said, "tough" it was our problem. It cost a governor his job in a recall, it cost the 5th largest economy in the world to be in a deficit today greater than it would have been, and it cost our country because it relies on the taxes of one of its biggest states to help fund the MS, OK, KY, SC and other red state leeches projects. Now everybody has a lot less!
Maybe Madoff will "die" before he gets to prison, the way Ken Lay "died of a heart attack" at a friend's home after conviction but just before he had to show up to serve his prison term. Lay's wife/former secretary was left with all the stolen millions and the law couldn't take them from her because she wasn't the one convicted. Pretty good trick if you can pull it off - but then, Madoff and Lay are master tricksters, as we know. A few bucks for the "undertaker", a new name, a few disguises, a new palace in Brazil. . .who knows? The possibilities for another scam are endless.
Whish is why we need REGULATION of the industry. but the best revenge is still this :
take all your money out of Wall Street forever. Put it in your local bank or under your mattress.
If only I had any left...sigh.
Yeah, my 401 (k) and IRA money...whew! THAT'LL show 'em. They wouldn't even notice.
I had a boss who was an investment banker, and one of his kids had a liquid assets fund where his father could do trades for him, so that was just a jumping off point. $80,000. I think the kid was 10. These are different people.
Aren't these the same people that proclaim they can't live on a mere $500,000 and if we don't allow them to continue to garner huge bonuses then they will go somewhere else. I know that's what the bankers are threatening, but it seems to me Wall Street are of the same ilk.
Well, that's just the base pay, and who can live on that?! That probably only covers their trophy wives' clothing allowance.
These Wall St and auto CEOs have got their fortunes, now they'll just lobby for less government regulation and tax cuts for the rich like they always do.
Oh. So they're all republicans. I should have known. (I did)
Wall Street Execs were likely convinced Madoff was a SUCCESSFUL fraud ... so why would they say a word? And the auto CEOs looking for $30 billion while cutting 47,000 jobs are used to riding the success train & keeping the wealth for themselves. Disgusting if not criminal.
Wall Street ; Thicker than Thieves --- they look out for their own !!
FYI: For an interesting insight into what goes on in the minds of these crooks ,
to sell us all down the drain , check out a book called: Snakes in Suits
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Snakes-in-Suits/Paul-Babiak/e/9780060837723/?itm=4
The Thin Blue(blood) Line
What do you expect? They're out there risking their lives every day, to keep America safe from socialism, to keep their families from having to live like you and me.
They're! All! That! Stands! Between! Us! And! Them!
If they don't stick together, we might stick it to them!
You absolutely nailed it. It's not just about having a lot of money per se with them, it's about keeping the illusion going that they are superior beings, by virtue of their money. God forbid, they should have to live in the real world, amongst real people.
Senior executives at some of Wall Street's biggest firms were convinced Bernard Madoff was a fraud as early as 2005.
Sounds just like the Bush Administration. Nobody did anything to stop the nonsense.
Mr Kraft, who owns the New England Patriots, was asked about Madoff. He said Madoff approached him, but, he said "we have people who vet these things. They came back and said 'we don't understand it, and don't know how it works', so we decided it was best not to invest with him. Madoff's resume provided a brilliant cover, which I'm sure led many people to believe he was 'covered' in other ways, and probably a hornet's nest not worth kicking.
I love it when rich people are upset because they don't have enough money.
Let's see. We have:
Incredibly wealthy investment bankers responsible for costing the American taxpayers a trillion dollars.
Corporate executives responsible for purposely marketing salmonella-tainted peanut butter that killed children.
Mr. and Mrs. Madoff who cheated investors of $50 billion dollars.
GM surviving on $13.4 billion in federal loans now asking for $30 billion more or there will be (blackmail)massive layoffs
What did this unrelated cast of characters have in common?
They all benefited from the tax cuts and deregulation policies of George W. Bush.
Seldom have chickens come home to roost so quickly after the chicken farmer left for the ranch.
Exactly. The Bush tax cuts only served the rich.
The rich CEO, business owners, tax evaders, who get millions in just bonuses.
Yeah, like I feel sorry for them!
The middle class, blue collar workers got screwed, while the CEO business owners shipped their jobs overseas, and bushie gave them a tax incentive for that too!!
Screw Bush and his tax cuts, his anti-American policies that got us into this mess! Damn him!
The chicken farner was just a scarecrow those chickens put up to mislead people to think someone was in charge besides the foxes.
We need to clean house - the accountant next door is better than these guys - they need to be put in jail, their homes and bank accounts confiscated and the banks handed over to a whole new crew of people, people who receive no more than 200,000/yr . These new people will be tested for cocaine every week and get a polygraph once a month.
These bankers should feel right at home among the other cons.
So if you want to understand how someone can run the huge scam that was Enron, or how someone can rip $50 billion out of the pockets of charities and people, many of whom are "friends," or how some people can be callous about a torture called water-boarding (a "no-brainer," he said), or offer nothing but a shrug when reminded they have caused the death of thousands--if you want to understand the dynamics of these behaviors it might help to remember the continuum that runs from ordinary people with empathy to people with no empathy at all.
It seems that's the real America. Or is it? These days it seems we're living in a society that's a candy store for sociopaths and almost-sociopaths and wannabe-sociopaths.
I don't have a fix. Regulation will help on Wall Street, but it's only a band-aid. The general problem is apparently psychiatric.
Yes, political corruption, Wall Street frauds, business
CEOs, and sociopaths...
A.K.A... Today's Republican Party
Sociopaths are probably the biggest problem facing our society that no one seems to know about. Bernie Madoff would probably be diagnosed as one. Unfortunately, most sociopaths are diagnosed only when they're dumb enough to get caught and go to prison. And many, many sociopaths are not dumb. In fact, they can be brilliant.
Sociopaths are responsible for financial fraud, domestic violence, child custody battles, business meltdowns and violence. But because they blend easily into society, most people do not realize that we are living among them.
But it's rare for the sociopaths to face consequences for their actions. That's because law enforcement and the courts are also unaware of this personality disorder. Sociopaths are calm under pressure and talk a good game, so they often get out of jail free. How do you think Bernie Madoff escaped prior investigations?
The only solution to this problem is education. People need to know that sociopaths exist, and what the warning signs are. And if they see those red flags flying, they need to exit as soon as possible.
With the massive size of corporations it shouldn't be any surprise that sociopaths overpopulate them. The bigger they are & the more complicated their ties, the easier it is to rationalize or bury antisocial behavior. Insiders who object or blow a whistle are likely to punished not praised. Fear rules and individual responsibility doesn't exist, nirvana for madmen.
Sociopathic behavior in some groups seems to have become an accepted, normative quality; even a behavior that is praised. Within dominant groups, sociopathic behavior combined with the so-called "A-Type" personality is a dangerous combination for the all groups within a society.
These GM & Chrysler CEOs seem like sociopaths to me. Where's their conscience? They want our taxpayers' money to cut more jobs?!
I say no more money ............ unless they save jobs, period.
I can understand the concern for not letting the US auto industry disappear. While there are a lot of factors that bear on the problem: wall street crooks, crooks in the mortgage industry, dumb or ignorant folks that don't seem to have enough sense to know if they can afford a house that cost more than they make despite what some idiot told them, morally bankrupt politicians on both side of the isle that don"t even make time to read the largest expenditure in our history and the fact that a ton of folks will lose their jobs. My question is just how much is too much for the taxpayers to pay to keep an industry in business that can't make a profit? Do you think there is an amount too much?
At any amount it's money down the drain. They will be back in March for another 30 bil. The US government is essentially keeping the companies afloat. I'm a business person and I would never lend to a company that can't pay the loan back. Silly to even contemplate.
This is CRAZY. They should just fail. I'm tired of the handouts and layoffs. But here's the kicker - why in the world will these companies not WAKE UP and start innovating and being leaders...we don't want gasoline cars. We dont' want hybrids. We want GAS FREE!!!!! Honda has done it. How embarassing to the U.S. I'm ashamed. Chrysler gives us the Volt???? Please. If these companies would just get off their lazy asses and start innovating then I bet not only we would buy the cars but so would other countries.
so they want more bail-out money to CUT jobs---????? Guess all the loot is for the executives and c.e.o.s---just as always.
Dear Uncle Sam, give us more money than you already have so we can cut our losses and destroy the lives of thousands more employees. Just don't take away our bonuses, perks or jobs. We know what's best for our business.
next they will announce that the assembly plants for the cars are being out-sourced to Mexico.
Well, that might cut down on the immigration problem....
Using taxpayer dollars to screw taxpayers. Now that's sociopaths for you.
GM is on a set downward spiral. Chrysler went bankrupt years ago under Iacocca. Their products can't compete and won't bring them back. How much money of the first bailout for them went to at least two major car shows and all the perks associated with that?
If GM and Chrysler swear they have changed their behavior, why are they fighting the EPA not to allow California to use its more stringent emission regulations? Makes one wonder.
They're in bed with big oil.
GM, Ford and Chrysler must be saved.......
If they fail what kind of Nascar races would we have?
You could race a Tundra against a Sequoia!
Really? Guess what? They aren't selling either.
Let's see - Potentially $1.5T to Wall Street which will provide no jobs to middle America, a "stimulus" bill around $800B that will (maybe) put someone to work in the future, or $30B to keep thousands of people employed immediately.
What's wrong with this picture? And don't tell me they make lousy cars nobody wants - how's Toyota doing this year? Spend the money now.
How true is your statement. I think wallstreet, big business, (repubs all) see this as a chance to destroy a very big union.
The taxpayers should give the money so that GM can send the $40bn to its plants in Brazil, Mexico and China?!?!?
Let GM go under and put a stop to this fantasy that GM is a US car company. Most of its employees are in those countries, most of its cars are made there.
Automakers should ask Madoff for the $40 billion and leave us out of it... he's got $50 hidden away somewhere.
I like your thinking
NEW YORK — The trustee in charge of untangling the mess left behind by Bernard Madoff told a packed auditorium Friday there was no indication the disgraced money manager had bought securities for his clients for over a decade.
"We have no evidence to indicate securities were purchased for customer accounts" in the past 13 years, said Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee overseeing the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. "This is a case where we're going to be looking at cash in and cash out" _ the definition of a Ponzi scheme.
This news would mean that anyone who worked there, sons included,will be implicated. There was a guy whose title was "Head of Trades." guilty!!
His sons will have to arrested too--everybody at the company. The idea that his sons were unaware of this fraud--a major investment operation that didn't actually buy stocks--is comical; of course they knew. Madoff had them blow the whistle only to try and get them off.
Not a single stock trade was made for customers yet the SEC could find no evidence of any wrong doing?
The investigators and their superiors at the SEC responsible for this need to be brought up on charges.
At an absolute minimum, their names and faces need to be plastered all over the media as part of a hall of shame so that they can never work again in this field.
And if they are civil servants that by some injustice can not be fired, they should be assigned to janitorial duties where they can not harm the public good ever again.
If Madoff did not purchase any securities, why are these "investments" covered under the SIPC? Is there a loophole being created here?
Probably because he had a license from some govt agency that was asleep at the wheel.
It is UNBELIEVABLE to me that NONE of the clients ever noticed any discrepancies. His statements apparently showed stock purchases with pricing that was wrong for the date of purchase and no one ever checked this out. I worked in Personal Trust for years for a large bank. I think at least half of my clients would have noticed this. Who are these people???
big hedge fund managers who based their trust on his name and reputation, but did ZERO due diligence.
1) Madoff should be in jail
2) SEC officials need to go to jail
3) His accomplices need to also rot in jail
I agree and I can bet you none of the above will happen!
Two things I learned as a child:
1. Never put all your eggs in one basket.
2. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Everyone who lost their shirts with Madoff violated both of those.
He was paying people out (when they asked for their "profits" with other people's money.
That's why its called a ponzi scheme.
It fell apart When Wall Street Banks and Investment Houses tanked in our shitty economy, prompting more and more people to start asking for their money and Madoff didn't have enough new "investors" to get the money from.
But many of his clients at the top of the pyramid must have raked in huge "profits" (on paper anyway) over the years, BEFORE his Ponzi-scheme collapsed.
What's going to happen with those profits?
Will they have to refund them?
From what the SIPC guy said this morning, that seems to depend - to some degree at least, this was unclear - on whether the clients were AWARE of the possibilities that Madoff was a fraud. This seems to me an astonishing and bizarre provision. Certainly, there were red flags all over the place and men like Harry Markopolos were blowing whistles as hard as they could, but the SEC investigated Madoff at least eight times in the last sixteen years - including a full audit in 2006 - and declared him legit every time. Since the SEC was supposed to be the ultimate watchdog, clients can hardly be blamed for continuing to invest with Madoff.
If the SEC could not even catch Madoff, it makes you wonder about how many really savvy fraud schemes are still in operation.
How can evangelical repubs think man is fallen and sinful by nature and still be philosophically opposed to regulation?
Heh...I've often wondered the same thing myself.
Because they are enormous hypocrites, just as they are with most everything else.
Another example of nonexistent oversight under Bush.
During Clinton's presidency 69 cases of securities fraud prosecuted.
Under Bush, only 9.
Fox guarding the henhouse.
Looks more like the fox ate a few chickens and then fell asleep, leaving no one guarding the hen house (but later we may likely discover that the fox was actually selling the chickens out the back window).
If the truth is ever actually revealed, we will likely discover that there was massive theft both before the collapse and during the "bail outs," theft at a mind-boggling level.
By tapping into deficit financed tax-payer dollars, these thieves have figured out a way to steal from Americans even before they are born.
Our generations inherited a nation of great wealth. Our children and grandchildren are inheriting massive debt.
At a minimum, we need to find and prosecute the thieves, assure that they do not benefit from their crimes, and take back every stolen dollar we can find.
Hmmm. Well, looking at my own portfolio lately, even if Madoff HAD bought stocks, it could have yielded the same results as his ponzi scheme.
Whether you lose money in the stock market or to Bernie Madoff - either way, you come up empty...
Madoff investors clearly had a sustained and willing suspension of disbelief fueled by their own greed.
Laypersons (me being one) should Invest only in common stocks of companies that produce something they understand.
Read and understand the prospecti, quarterly reports and all the 1099's.
Trust in a manager is clearly not enough, that is why con-men are also know as confidence-men.
I had a bad vibe from Meryll-Lynch and they were pushy and bullish when there was no apparent basis for this confidence. We got out of ML just before they tanked.
Coincidentally I just moved my mortgage our of Countyrwide and moved my banking out of Bank Of America (BOA).
BOA of course bought both those dogs, and have been really awful allowing three incidents of identity theft on MY accounts!!
my advice - Stay away from BOA
Every conman makes his living off of people's greed...Madoff is no different. He told people he could get them better returns than is possible, and they bought into it.
"Madoff investors clearly had a sustained and willing suspension of disbelief fueled by their own greed. "
Then again, so did subprime mortgage buyers
All stock brokers are con-men
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