Bernie Madoff Case

The articles assigned for today’s personal response discuss Bernie Madoff’s epic fraud that unraveled in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The first of the articles, “Scenes From the Madoff Masquerade” outlines the final year of Madoff’s scheme before his arrest. The article lists numerous dates throughout this final year and points to the rising level of suspicions from many of his investors. The article also points to how Bernie Madoff conducted himself even as suspicions and doubt of his hedge fund operations grew. In an interview with Florida investors on July 15th of 2007, Madoff was able to escape a sizeable redemption, even as executives and investors had expressed significant doubt in Madoff’s operation. The article also points to a number of instances in which Madoff would take out millions of dollars for his personal expenditures even as he became aware of the impending stock market downfall.

In the following New York Times article, the author discusses many of the interviews conducted with Madoff inside of prison and through e-mail conversation following his incarceration. In the interviews, Madoff maintains that his family members knew nothing of the crimes, and that he never thought the collapse of his Ponzi scheme would cause the sort of destruction it has on his family. The most intriguing aspect outlined in this article was Madoff’s comments on some of the trust’s and investors. Although blame lies solely on Madoff, he believes that many of the hedge funds and large investors in his scheme, must have known something, but chose not to tell their many investors of their suspicions. The smaller investors felt that they could trust the hedge funds that ultimately invested their money with Madoff, however the lack of due diligence conducted by the these hedge funds handling the money of the smaller investors, led to their ultimate financial losses. Madoff believes that ethically, there should be a number of parties held accountable.