I never knew how dangerous Pure Greed could be until I took the time to do more far reaching research. Bernard Madoff was the author and publisher of the Largest Stock Fraud in history. He fooled investors out of 65 Billion Dollars and is now serving a 150 year sentence at Butner Federal Prison in Butner North Carolina. Madoff's would be victims range from the very wealthy to so called average working class Americans. Whole families gave Madoff all of their money to manage. Jewish Philanthropic organizations allowed Madoff to manage their investments. The one time non Exsecutive Chairman of NASDAQ ran a la git investment firm in the lipstick building in downtown Manhattan which his sons Mark and Andrew was running when the crap hit the fan. Just a few floors below is where he centralized his Investment Advisory operation. As early as 1960 Madoff became a Market Maker, but ran a side hustle as a Investment Adviser. He offered his clients 18 percent return on their money. Michael Bienes and Frank Avellino who worked as accountants with Madoff's father in-law where at the top of the pyramid issuing promisary notes to investors with a rate of return on them for their investment. As they took on more investors, they made as much as 10 Million dollars a year. Michael Bienes in a interview stated that they just took a little off the top. "We were never Pigs." he exclaimed. I looked at him as he made this statement and could see barbee que sauce on his lips and shirt. Even after they were shut down by the Securities and Exchange Commission and had to return 441 Million Dollars to their investors, they still were funneling investors to Madoff through another source. All trails lead back to Madoff, but he was not investigated by the SEC though he had thousand of clients and managed billions of dollars, he made money for his clients no matter the conditions of the market and was not registered. Harry Markopolos invested 4 hours of his time and figured out what the others willingly overlooked. He contacted the SEC in 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 and 2008, but was not taken serious. In 2007 the economy was sliding which forced many of Madoff clients to make withdrawals and when Madoff could not come up with the money his clients requested, the gig was up and on December 11 2008 he confessed to his sons and brother Peter that it all was a Lie.
What part does his victims play in the scheme of things? They take no responsibility for the part they played as Greedy Opportunist. In Scam of the Century victims were interview. All thinking they were set for life. Joyce Greenburg and three generations of her family let Bernard Madoff manage all of their money. Ms. Greenburg a stock Broker herself could not find anything wrong with Madoff's operation. Just the fact that they made money with Madoff no matter if the market was up or down should have raised a red flag to a person with little knowledge of the Stock Market. In Palm Beach Florida a playground for the wealthy where people are use to having it all, many a Madoff investor felt the after affects of loosing millions with Madoff. Many ran to a near by pawn shop to off load some of their trinkets to obtain badly needed cash to sustain what is left of their lavish lifestyles. A woman retired and moved to Florida expecting to live off of the Monopoly Money she made with Bernard Madoff ended up with no life savings and stuck with just her social security check. When minds are clouded with Greed, the returns are good and everything seems to checkout, common sense and rational thinking is put on the back burner. This created a perfect storm with the ad of the SEC turning a blind eye and a def ear. This leads one to know that the rabbit hole goes farther then we know. The victims wanted people to know that those that Madoff Duped are not just Rich and Greedy, but many are regular folk. Greedy people come from all walks of life. They to have a quest also to obtain more then they need or deserve.
