Bernie Madoff: Exercised Options
"To the best of my recollection, my fraud began in the early 1990s..."
Looks like Bernie might have screwed 'em again. No 1992 fraud, no1992 SEC negligence, no big settlement.
From the early '60s to the early '90s, Bernie legitimately never made a bad call. Or so he says.
Time will tell but I predict the Feds will treat the other Madoffs with kid gloves. Otherwise, Bernie's memory will suddenly improve and he will recall another warehouse full of old records that prove the fraud was ongoing for forty years, thereby giving the victims a strong basis to sue the government for not investigating him in 1992.
A leveraged buyout, so to speak.
If the Madoff victims ever successfully sued the SEC, the floodgates would be opened and the SEC would be tied up in litigation until the end of time. The Madoff victims pose a much bigger threat than your average disgruntled fraud victim. They organize, apply political pressure and work the media. A fair number of them still have considerable resources.
Bernie's testimony is literally worth billions of dollars. The SEC would be dead in the water if he ever got on the stand. Search the SEC website for "Madoff". Bernie had his hand in any number of SEC decisons made at the expense of the ordinary investor and who knows who he has on the hook for shady trading.
Me, I'd like to know if Bernie knows who made big bucks offshore when the NYSE was closed for several days.
The guy is OCD and his storage facility in Astoria was filled with paperwork of some kind, something I read about just once and, as far as I know, has not been mentioned in the press again.
Being a control freak, Bernie probably planned his own demise. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if negotiations had been ongoing before the aging drama queen confessed to his crimes in classic grade "b" fashion.
If nothing else, his family can accurately gauge their own fair value now that a market price has been established. Marked to market, as they say.
That's my theory.
Outstanding!
March 13, 2009 9:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
But, since he's thrown himself to the wolves, is the investigation kaput? As you've pointed out in previous posts - it's unbelievable that he could operate for so long, with so many red flags flying (and deliberately ignored), and tub sixty-plus billion without anyone else in his company or family smelling fish. Sure! And I'm Howard Hughes. Impossible! But since he's headed upriver, will the investigators call it a day? Putting it in simpler, cruder terms: How much swing does Madoff still have? He's connected, rich (we can be damn sure he's socked away some skim); he's gotta know where bodies are buried (some probably literally), so he has some leverage. And here's a bet: He's out in 5-7 (medical/mercy reasons) and joins the clan in Gstaad. Are we going to sit back and put up with this?
March 13, 2009 12:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
This blog has been following this so long I smell a book coming out. And Mrs. P works to get stuff on the internet from a number of different sources. And this will be investigated for a decade. Too much money, too many powerful people hurt. When rich and powerful people are hurt they can afford attorneys and lobbyists for that matter.
And this is a good thing when you think about it. It is not like there are billions laying around and people can be paid off and sent on their way.
The moral of this story is do not stiff the rich and powerful. I even predict employees of the government are going down in the end.
March 13, 2009 12:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
The victims are more numerous, I think, than victims of 9/11. And they are all alive! I bet they will badger and badger and badger for info! And the rest of us will cheer them on!
March 13, 2009 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, what the "victims" are seeking is for the federal government to accept blame and to bail them out with taxpayer dollars.
To make the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund look like a penny-ante game.
I, for one, am not about to cheer them on.
March 13, 2009 4:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I caught the tail end of Rachel Maddow's interview with David Weidner about Madoff and the SEC.
The conclusion reached was that the SEC should/might be scrapped to start over from the beginning, because the problems with it are so deep and systemic that it can't be fixed.
What's your take on this, Mrs. P?
By the way, not to gush, but I look forward to your posts, especially on the whole Madoff scandal. (Your biggest fan xoxoxo)
March 13, 2009 3:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is great Mrs. P. thank you. What are they going to do about the people that paid taxes on the money that didn't exist especially when they do the claw backs?
March 13, 2009 8:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the compliments. As I said, the Feds might just go through the motions and the other guilty parties will escape relatively unscathed.
The papers seem to have forgotten the rest of the Madoff family but there has been an article or two on what role Madoff's accountants and some employees played.
Bernie would have us all believe the rest of his business was honest but the man is a liar and nothing he says can be taken at face value.
The more I learn about the case, the more convinced I am that we are not hearing the whole story.
And I suspect the brokerage operations crossed the line more than once.
March 14, 2009 6:50 AM | Reply | Permalink