Banks hit worldwide by US fraud

Some of the world's biggest banks have revealed that they are victims of a fraud which has lost $50bn (£33bn).

Bernard Madoff has been charged with fraud in what is being described as one of the biggest-ever such cases.

Among the banks which have been hit are Britain's HSBC and RBS, Spain's Santander and France's BNP Paribas.

One of the City's best-known fund managers has criticised US financial regulators for failing to detect the alleged fraud.

Banks hit worldwide by US fraud

Some of the world's biggest banks have revealed that they are victims of a fraud which has lost $50bn (£33bn).

Bernard Madoff has been charged with fraud in what is being described as one of the biggest-ever such cases.

Among the banks which have been hit are Britain's HSBC and RBS, Spain's Santander and France's BNP Paribas.

One of the City's best-known fund managers has criticised US financial regulators for failing to detect the alleged fraud.





It isn't that the financial regulators failed to detect the fraud, the problem is they didn't even bother to look.  They had been warned that there was a problem with Madoff, but there has been a hands off policy when in comes to Wall Street.

USA #1!

I was just reading this story....

There is some famous quote that goes something like...
How rediculous is the man that is surprised by anything in this world.

I was just reading this story....

There is some famous quote that goes something like...
How rediculous is the man that is surprised by anything in this world.
Right from the start would you trust a man with the name Madoff, which can be read as made off?

Right from the start would you trust a man with the name Madoff, which can be read as made off?


LOL...  nice...

Right from the start would you trust a man with the name Madoff, which can be read as made off?


He's MAD and OFF!
:D

They announced today that one of the companies that had investments with him is Mass Mutual, the company that handles my unions retirement accounts.  This is the third company the union has used in 15 years and moved because of problems.  We went from Fidelity to Putnam and now to MassMutual, which has so far, been very good.  So far.  :-\\

They announced today that one of the companies that had investments with him is Mass Mutual, the company that handles my unions retirement accounts.  This is the third company the union has used in 15 years and moved because of problems.  We went from Fidelity to Putnam and now to MassMutual, which has so far, been very good.  So far.   :-\\


Got my fingers crossed for you.

It isn't that the financial regulators failed to detect the fraud, the problem is they didn't even bother to look.  They had been warned that there was a problem with Madoff, but there has been a hands off policy when in comes to Wall Street.


His niece was the company's Director of Compliance (and in-house lawyer), and was married to an SEC official.  The wife's name was on plenty of documents.  Now, none of them have been charged yet, but it's... an interesting coincidence.

I wonder just how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Probably pretty damn deep.

They have him on "house arrest"  He has to wear a bracelet and can't leave his house at night.  During the day he can do whatever he wants.

....During the day he can do whatever he wants.
Make more money?

Make more money?


Steal....

He lives in a 17million apartment on Park Avenue.  Life is tough, huh!  Word is his 2 sons turned him in.

Steal....

He lives in a 17million apartment on Park Avenue.  Life is tough, huh!  Word is his 2 sons turned him in.
So he will not be spending Christmas with his sons?

So he will not be spending Christmas with his sons?


He is Jewish, so I guess he won't be spinning the dreidel since he has lost all of gelt anyway

He is Jewish, so I guess he won't be spinning the dreidel since he has lost all of gelt anyway
Lonely this holiday season.

He is Jewish, so I guess he won't be spinning the dreidel since he has lost all of gelt anyway


Interestingly many of the institutions who got ripped off were various Jewish charities and businessmen.

I wonder what is the Yiddish word that they are using to describe him?

What I have not heard is where did the money go.  He certainly could not have SPENT it all.  I wonder if it was simply bad trades, and how long did the losing position go on?

Interestingly many of the institutions who got ripped off were various Jewish charities and businessmen.

I wonder what is the Yiddish word that they are using to describe him?

What I have not heard is where did the money go.  He certainly could not have SPENT it all.  I wonder if it was simply bad trades, and how long did the losing position go on?
May be will will know in the future when more businesses crumble.

Steal....

He lives in a 17million apartment on Park Avenue.  Life is tough, huh!  Word is his 2 sons turned him in.


Jay Leno commented on this last night.  He said that the people this guy bilked should be the ones who get to stay in the apartment on Park Ave.  This guy needs to be locked away in a dark, cold 8X8 cell for the rest of his life.

I wonder what is the Yiddish word that they are using to describe him?




Gonif works...the one I put before was modified to chuck.

There are websites with yiddish swear words/insults but the one I used apparently has spyware so I'm not linking to it

Madoff is a dirty crook for sure, but the real culprit is the Reaganomics philosophy that made the system vulnerable to a dirty crook like Madoff.  It's not as if there were no dirty crooks looking to rip off the investmetn houses 50 years ago.  There were just as many Madoffs then and that's why the government had to levy all those onerous regulations.  Now  Mike Huckabee's out there saying, "Gee, if we all did the right thing, we wouldn't need Big Government."  Yeah, well, no sh*t Sherlock!  The problem is there will always be dirty crooks like Madoff and Blagojevich and Huckabee's do-gooder words give them no pause.  This is will be the case even when we don't have a "greed is good" mentality, which has been the prevailing mentality in our culture for 30 years!
::)

What I have not heard is where did the money go.  He certainly could not have SPENT it all.  I wonder if it was simply bad trades, and how long did the losing position go on?



There wasn't any money, just on paper.  He was telling all these people they had this money but they really didn't, and they kept giving him more because (on paper) they thought he was doing so well with their money.  It was a Ponzi (pyramid)scheme, only on a huge scale.  People invested millions in long term investments so he was able to keep this going because the people weren't looking for immediate returns.  His sons blew his cover and all people started asking for their money, that is when they found out that there wasn't enough to go around.

There wasn't any money, just on paper.  He was telling all these people they had this money but they really didn't, and they kept giving him more because (on paper) they thought he was doing so well with their money.  It was a Ponzi (pyramid)scheme, only on a huge scale.  People invested millions in long term investments so he was able to keep this going because the people weren't looking for immediate returns.  His sons blew his cover and all people started asking for their money, that is when they found out that there wasn't enough to go around.


Too bad for Madoff he wasn't smooth enough to leave some stooge holding the bag while he disappeared into thin air as the pyramid collapsed.
::)

Too bad for Madoff he wasn't smooth enough to leave some stooge holding the bag while he disappeared into thin air as the pyramid collapsed.
::)


That's the part I don't get.  He had to know it was going to implode.  So why didn't he just run away with the money when it started to collapse?  Anyone smart enough to amass $50B (even if it's only $17B) under scamagement oughta be smart enough to have an exit strategy.

Maybe he just made an "honest" mistake; that is, he honestly thought the scam was going to last longer than it actually did, but when the markets started to crash in September, and his investors started hitting his funds with unscheduled redemptions, the pyramid collapsed a year or two ahead of schedule.  But you'd think he'd still have had the foresight to have at least hundred million or so stashed away as a last-ditch escape route.  (Then again, maybe not.  You've also gotta be a bit of a self-deluded megalomaniac to want to carry such a scam into the $50B range ;)

Assuming he lives long enough to go to trial, those are the questions I'd like to see answered.  How long did he think it was going to last, what was his exit strategy, and where did he screw it up?

That's the part I don't get.  He had to know it was going to implode.  So why didn't he just run away with the money when it started to collapse?  Anyone smart enough to amass $50B (even if it's only $17B) under scamagement oughta be smart enough to have an exit strategy.

Maybe he just made an "honest" mistake; that is, he honestly thought the scam was going to last longer than it actually did, but when the markets started to crash in September, and his investors started hitting his funds with unscheduled redemptions, the pyramid collapsed a year or two ahead of schedule.  But you'd think he'd still have had the foresight to have at least hundred million or so stashed away as a last-ditch escape route.  (Then again, maybe not.  You've also gotta be a bit of a self-deluded megalomaniac to want to carry such a scam into the $50B range ;)

Assuming he lives long enough to go to trial, those are the questions I'd like to see answered.  How long did he think it was going to last, what was his exit strategy, and where did he screw it up?


Maybe he's got tertiary syphilis like Al Capone and his brain is Swiss cheese!
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/11/confused2.gif

Or maybe he's just a doojbag who never considered getting caught, like Gov. Baloneysandwich there!

Maybe he's got tertiary syphilis like Al Capone and his brain is Swiss cheese!
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/11/confused2.gif

Or maybe he's just a doojbag who never considered getting caught, like Gov. Baloneysandwich there!


....or maybe he'll do a Ken Lay

That's the part I don't get.  He had to know it was going to implode.  So why didn't he just run away with the money when it started to collapse?  Anyone smart enough to amass $50B (even if it's only $17B) under scamagement oughta be smart enough to have an exit strategy.

Maybe he just made an "honest" mistake; that is, he honestly thought the scam was going to last longer than it actually did, but when the markets started to crash in September, and his investors started hitting his funds with unscheduled redemptions, the pyramid collapsed a year or two ahead of schedule.  But you'd think he'd still have had the foresight to have at least hundred million or so stashed away as a last-ditch escape route.  (Then again, maybe not.  You've also gotta be a bit of a self-deluded megalomaniac to want to carry such a scam into the $50B range ;)

Assuming he lives long enough to go to trial, those are the questions I'd like to see answered.  How long did he think it was going to last, what was his exit strategy, and where did he screw it up?


Here is an alternative theory...

Maybe he is just a colossal A-hole.  ;D

Here is an alternative theory...

Maybe he is just a colossal A-hole.   ;D


Oh yeah, those guys.  They always turn out in droves when I come to town!
:P

Or maybe he's just a doojbag who never considered getting caught, like Gov. Baloneysandwich there!


Maybe.  But at least I'm not the only one who's wondering Madoff was thinking.  A few interesting comments on that blog, too.

It's been a while since we've heard anything really new about Madoff.  Well, here's a couple of new tidbits.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_rWY3qGfe6gc/SYtkuZ3r7yI/AAAAAAAABqo/WgdnwkH1nXk/s400/ScumbagBillioniare.jpg

full-res (833x1233) poster.

Something to lighten the mood.  Won't make up for $50B, but here are some of the highlights, as well as the full list (warning, large PDF) of Madoff's victims.

The disgusting thing, even by Washington standards, is that the SEC spent most of yesterday basically covering for the bastard, because to come clean about what happened would make their own neglicence clear.