Ethical Behavior: The Bernard Madoff Case

The Bernard Madoff case exhibited highly unethical behavior, which resulted in the loss of billions of investor dollars. The orchestration of the ponzi scheme was done in a strategic manner since its inception from the early 1990’s. Madoff mimicked the method of the infamous Charles Ponzi by conducting a similar scheme using market securities. Ponzi schemes have been in existence for decades and their results have been very detrimental to those who invested in them. When discussing ponzi schemes, greed comes to mind as the primary reason behind them. It involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors. In many ponzi schemes, the fraudsters focus on attracting new money to make promised payments to earlier-stage investors to create the false appearance that investors are profiting from a legitimate business (Commission, 2013). These schemes are deceiving because they pitch an opportunity that offers great reward with little to no risk. However, the realities of these strategic methods are for fraudsters to gain more money by swindling investors.

After graduating college and

It is possible to say that if some of his investors were properly advised, they would not have invested with his company. Before hiring or recommending an investment advisor, it is crucial that research is done on investment advising and investors familiarize themselves with key things to be aware of. The recommended investment advisor must be an advocate of ethical principles and have the necessary licenses, credentials, and experience to get the job done effectively and efficiently. In addition, he/she must be a specialist in fraud and forensics and be able to make sound judgment on matters that relate to the job description. If this step is taking by investors, then they decrease their chances of investing with fraudsters like Madoff in the