“If It Quacks Like a Duck”
Assignment 2 – Bernard Lawrence “Bernie” Madoff
Business Law I
March 4, 2011
Bernard Madoff
Abstract
Unethical behavior…sounds bad doesn’t it? But what employee can truly say that he is completely innocent of any unethical behavior in the workplace? Some of the most common unethical business behaviors are fudging work hours, making phone calls on business lines and photo copying of personal paperwork. Simple acts such as these are highly unlikely to have an employee face criminal charges but when the acts of embezzling money or falsifying business records are committed a company is more apt to prosecute. People have different views regarding what is ethical and what is unethical. Some feel that it’s
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Mr. Madoff’s dealings also affected his business employees, people who woke up thinking they had a job came to work only to realize that the no longer had a job but the y didn’t even have the money they had put into their retirement funds, literally everything they had was gone. Also affected were his investors; people who had invested their earnings and savings believing that Madoff and his company were legitimate. Another tragedy of Mr. Madoff’s action was the impact on his business partners and the business world. The stock market will never be the same and never again will a wise investment be made without the investor doing research to check the validity of said investment, thus considering the risks. The general public no longer puts blind trust in investment companies; thanks to Bernie Madoff the obvious is no longer taken for granted in the world of big business.
Describe three business safeguards (risk management) that may have prevented the harm caused by Mr. Madoff. Looking back it’s easy to see the mistakes made by the investors of Bernard Madoff, how he got the rich and famous to foolishly invest their money with very little or no due diligence. He made the return of 10 to 12 percent annually look so good that investors begged to be included. Who wanted want to be a part of the impenetrable financial products or the better than average returns offered by Mr. Madoff. Sadly, if investors had
Bernie Madoff continued his scheme for thirty years because his company was the largest market maker on NASDAQ. He had an impressive rate of returns that his firm earned annually, and the Securities and Exchange Commission did not oversee the stock market and protect investors. Madoff also had flawless credentials. His scheme was so clever that he knew he could only aim toward the investors
Bernard Madoff had full control of the organizational leadership of Bernard Madoff Investments Securities LLC. Madoff used charisma to convince his friends, members of elite groups, and his employees to believe in him. He tricked his clients into believing that they were investing in something special. He would often turn potential investors down, which helped Bernard in targeting the investors with more money to invest. Bernard Madoff created a system which promised high returns in the short term and was nothing but the Ponzi scheme. The system’s idea relied on funds from the new investors to pay misrepresented and extremely high returns to existing investors. He was doing this for years; convincing wealthy individuals and charities to
In this case study, Bernie Madoff had been a prosperous and respectable financial specialist to his clientele. His clienteles were gotten just on a welcome only premise due to the fact that he was so successful. Madoff's appeal was that he could get a significant and consistent return on his stakeholder's money and offer sustain and continued growth. He simply moved money around to give the appearance of success. This trick not only fooled the investors, but fooled market insiders and regulators alike. Madoff even sought to only employ inexperienced and uneducated employees, since they were unlikely to discover his misdeeds. Eventually, Madoff's scams reached their end. It was then that Madoff told his sons of the scam and they subsequently
To begin, Bernie Madoff orchestrated one of the largest Ponzi schemes in American history. What made the scheme so successful was Madoff was selective with clients and did not guarantee overly optimistic returns. Instead he promised consistent and steady returns to a select group of clients. He masked his strategy by created a sense of overly complicated and esoteric policies that few could understand. However, his strategy was not overly complicated. Madoff would essentially take investor money and deposit it into a JP Morgan account. The money was seldom invested. When consumers asked for their
Simply put, too many immediate members of Bernie Madoff’s family maintained controlling positions, and none of them could be held accountable by anyone else employed by the firm. This rampant nepotism created a wall of operational secrecy, which often proved to be impenetrable even by close associates to the Madoff’s. The only accountant for this firm was this not a red flag, enough for everyone to want to check his background out and request for an outside audit on this person. www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/15/bernie-madoff-ponzi-scheme_n_151018html.
Bernard Madoff or “Bernie” is considered to be one of the greatest minds to ever work on wall street. With his warm personality and his humble beginnings he made a name for himself in the stock market eventually starting his own securities investment firm under the title of “Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC”. As it became apparent in early December of 2008 Bernard Madoff had been running the single greatest ponzi scheme ever recorded. Through this thousands of “people, charities, management firms and, banks” (Madoff's Victims). Even though many people viewed him as a great man, it is not possible to look past the fraud that he committed.
Bernie intently accepted large sums of funds from investors with the knowledge that he was not going to make legitimate investments with his the stackholders money. Bernie Madoff’s was conducting his business practices off of maximizing profits for himself over twenty years, which he intentialy defrauded his clients of almost sixty-five billion dollars. It is in my opinion that Bernie Madoff’s apparently knew what he was doing when he was engaging in un-ethical practices. When Madoff pled guilty to all charges in March 2009, which includes securities fraud, mail fraud, false statements, false filings with the SEC, investment advisor fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and theft from an employee benefit plan, I believe that he completely understood that his scam would be exposed at some time.
Bernie Madoff was one of the most trusted investment experts in Wall Street, but in 2008 the market collapsed and he admitted to his firm that his entire wealth management business was a Ponzi scheme for the last 30 years. More than 2, 200 people invested approximately $20 million. Many of Bernie Madoff victims invested money for their retirement fund. Most of the victims had their entire life saving into their account amounting to $65 billion. Majority of them should be retired and are in their mid-60 and now they still have to work to make ends meet. “In 2008, Michael De Vita of Chalfont, Bucks County, said the $5 million retirement account he and his mother entrusted to Madoff would allow him to retire at 60.Well, I'm now 65, still working and I figure I
Other parties greatly impacted by Bernie Madoff’s activities were his business associates and their many clients over the decades. For example, Frank Avellino and Michael Bienes themselves funneled over three thousand clients to Madoff’s investment advisory business. Madoff had consistently advised the pair to remain unregistered in their dealings. But when the SEC accused the duo of illegally selling securities, Madoff pretended ignorance of their activities, even though he had secretly instructed them all along. For their trouble, Avellino and Bienes were forced to pay a fine of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars and shut their business down. Other notable business partners eventually left in the lurch by Madoff’s growing fraud would go on to include Jeffrey Tucker and Walter Noel of Fairfield Greenwich Group. Non-related people who had worked under Bernie Madoff also became tainted from the association following his arrest. This employee group includes those who may have had indirect dealings through Madoff subsidiaries like Cohmad Securities Corporation. However, the idea also applies to those employed directly, such as former executive assistants Elaine Solomon and Eleanor Squillari. Jeffry Picower was in industrialist and philanthropist who seemed to be a favored Madoff beneficiary, and made outlandish profits from his investments with Madoff. From 1996-2007 there were 14 instances of greater than 100% yearly returns and 25 of greater than 50%. From
Madoff was a portrayed as a person with good intentions. He provided clients with investment sheets that appeared to be genuine and he provided a sense of commitment to the clients. He portrayed an act of teleology to his clients, which is morally right and acceptable, but in reality, his actions are that of a person makes a decision based on the best need for the individual to gain power, pleasure or satisfying a career. In addition, Madoff portrays a trait of enlightened egoism as he was interested in gaining new clients and helping them, he was using their money to pay the dividends for older established clients (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2011).
largest and most notorious Ponzi scheme in U.S. history was the one perpetuated by Bernie Madoff. He bilked investors out of
Introduction: Bernie Madoff was a well-respected financier, his company Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLC was very well known and even helped launch the Nasdaq stock market. Madoffs company was well trusted and he even had celebrity cliental such a Steven Spielberg, Kevin bacon, and Kyra Sedgwick. Madoff came from a low income family however, he was able to start his company from getting a $50,000 loan from his in-laws and he using money that he had saved from side jobs such as lifeguarding and installing sprinkler systems to found his company. The successfulness of Madoff’s company came from the company’s ability to adapt to change and us modern day computer technology. As his business grew he stated employing family members to help “His younger brother, Peter, joined him in the business in 1970 and became the firm 's chief compliance officer. Later, Madoff 's sons, Andrew and Mark, also worked for the company as traders. Peter 's daughter, Shana, became a rules-compliance lawyer for the trading division of her uncle 's firm, and his son, Roger, joined the firm before his death in 2006”(Bernard Madoff Biography 2016) Unfortunately on December 11th 2008 Bernie Madoff became well known for a whole new reason. He had been accused of performing an elaborate Ponzi scheme and he had been reported to the federal authorities by his own sons. A year later he admitted to the investigators that he had lost $50 billion dollars of his investors’ money and pled guilty to 11
“Sixty-five of the one hundred thirteen victim's' statements were examined. These sixty-five statements were from victims who invested directly with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities. We analyzed the data using the victim's 'language as presented in their statements. Though thirty-four victims (52%) indicated that they had lost "everything they had" or their life savings, we cannot determine whether losses for the remaining victims (who indicated an amount) represented all or a portion of their entire wealth.” (David Glodstein)
On Dec. 11, 2008, Bernard Lawrence Madoff confessed that his vaunted investment business was all "one big lie," a Ponzi scheme colossal in volume and scope that cost investors $65 billion. Overnight, Madoff became the new poster child for Wall Street gall, greed and
What were the weaknesses in the “control environment” of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC?