Bernie Madoff Essay

Bernie Madoff was a self-made billionaire who made his wealth by scheme others out of theirs. Madoff started his investment security firm in the early 1960’s. He started legally buying and selling stock ( ). In the early 1990’s, Madoff started investing money for some wealthy clients friends and family. People trusted him because of the credibility he gains by working alongside his father-in-law at his accounting firm. He worked at NASDAQ which is why most of his clientele trusted him and his promise of high returns. Madoff would invest people's money with the promise of high returns. His business grew as he began to take on more investors to keep the scheme going. The SEC was warned that something was not right with Madoff, however,

However, in the process he realised that people were so trusting and there weren't any guidelines in place to protect investors, he played it out as long as he could. He knew the business and how to orchestrate the movement of money. Madoff controlled all of the money in house. He only hired individuals with little or no knowledge of the business ( ). This was an indicator that Madoff knew that his scheme would eventually catch up to him and didn’t want anyone held liable for his fraudulent practices.

Some of the elements that lead to his success included credibility, knowledge of the business and lack of regulations by the SEC. Madoff started his elaborate scheme in the early 1960’s Through his father-in-law accounting firm, Madoff was able to gain the trust of many friends and investors. Feeder fund, which helped Madoff gain his wealth was another way he wooed over his clients. This type of fund is structured to reduce trading cost and overall operating cost ( ). Clients wanted little risk with their investment and Madoff seemed to have provided that for them. The SEC simply did not do their job. When they were tipped off eight years prior to the story going public, if they had started even the smallest examination, the fraud would have been revealed. Madoff did not do any trades, in fact, he simply just stole money from clients and became wealthy doing it. It wasn’t that