Granddad was a Dirty Crook

70 year old Bernie Madoff was a pillar of Wall Street. He was the former Chairman of the NASDAQ. He had been in the business for decades and had built up a considerable reputation. Presidents, Bankers, CEOs trusted Uncle Madoff. It looked like he was running one of the best and most stable trust funds that delivered conservative, consistent returns, and had the support of blue chip bank like HSCB, the very rich elite etc...

But he was a crook (apparently). His fund which was estimated at 70 billion dollars. Yes, 70 BILLION DOLLARS. That's $70,000,000,000.00 - roughly the amount of a small capital city - or enough money to buy you wagyu steak with a hot date (or two) and a top suite in the Waldorf Astoria for all eternity. OK, got that? But the only business he was involved in - was defrauding investors - a Ponzi scheme. A Ponzi scheme is this - you promise high returns to investors - say 10% every year. They pass you their money - but instead of investing it wisely - you take... say 50% of it ... and spend it on hot women and fast cars or Wagyu steak. However you still give out that 10% back to the investors. But the thing is - its their money. Not an investment return. And they won't realize they're duped until 6 years from now, when the money runs out and the pay checks run out. Meanwhile, the Ponzi scheme is growing and growing - and more and more people are giving you their cash. And they will - right up to the point when someone stops giving, and more customers start calling back their capital. Face it, most people are gullible like sheep. People aren't after the truth - they want to buy a dream, even if its a fake dream. Throw up a 100 page financial jargon disclosure statement behind "a 20% rate of return gurantee!!" and people's eyes will roll up and they'll hand you their money.

This is really horrifying. Madoff was trusted... he was the former chairman of the NASDAQ for @#$% sake. But then when you think of the crazy share prices movements and rallies that's been happening on Wall Street since 1996, you have to wonder whether the whole damn thing is a big sham.

Anyway, smart people with business degrees and MBAs from Harvard etc.. trusted the old bastard. Adults who should have known better. Alarm bells should have been ringing when his business plan looked dodgy and his auditing was being done by a small outfit in the middle of nowhere - and run by a couple of old deaf and blind pensioners from Florida. (Hey, what's that sonny? Speak up I cant hear ya)

In fact, it was suspected that he was cheating. But - get this - the funny thing was that people were putting money into his hands because of this rumor - they thought he was cheating using insider trading. The dude can't lose - he's using his connections to cheat the system. So no business plan... hush, hush, consistent returns, wink, wink, you know I mean. FFS, this guy makes the James Bond's villians look like amateurs. Uncle Madoff makes Le Chiffe look like a girl guide brownie.

Unfortunately, some people have put in their life savings with this joker.

The great fear is - how many other similar conjob are running in Wall Street??? And worse, maybe Madoff was just a frontman patsy for a larger more sinister organization?

For more information click here:

Financial Advisors who shouldn't be allowed to work as Lollypop workers.

I knew Bernie Madoff was a Cheat so I invested with him... duh

And meanwhile can we tar and feather the regulatory authority yet? These idiots were either asleep or brain dead or working for SMERSH or

S.P.E.C.T.R.E. as they slept through the subprime mortgage scandal and now this. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole damn financial and political institutions are orchastrating this horror story.