US Financier Bernard Madoff admits a 50 Billion Dollar fraud scandal, which has caught up some of the biggest banks and investors in the world.. a staggering 50 Billion Dollars!!!! 

Some of the world’s biggest banks are victims of this fraud in what is being described as one of the biggest cases of fraud.  Makes you wonder what these banks do, especially when their fund managers get such hefty bonuses and charge all of us collossal fees for delivering us as lambs to slaughter!!!

What is a Ponzi Scheme?

BBC NEWS EXTRACT:

Britain’s HSBC and RBS, Spain’s Santander and France’s BNP Paribas are some of the banks who have been hit by this fraud.  Where are the US financial regulators, how come no one saw yet another looming disaster which we’ll all be paying for, for years to come.

Nicola Horlick, boss of Bramdean investments, told the BBC: “I think now it is very difficult for people to invest in things that are meant to be regulated in America, because they have fallen down on the job.  This is the biggest financial scandal, probably in the history of the markets - $50bn is a huge amount of money,” she said.

The biggest private losers seem to have been members of the Palm Beach country club, where many of Mr Madoff’s wealthy clients were recruited.  The list of prominent victims include a New Jersey Senator, the owners of the New York Mets and the charities run by film director Stephen Spielberg and Nobel Prize winning writer Elie Wiesel.

BBC  News:  US prosecutors say Mr Madoff, a former head of the Nasdaq stock market, masterminded a fraud of massive proportions through his hedge fund and investment advisory business.   Mr Madoff is alleged to have used money from new investors to pay off existing investors in the fund.  A federal judge has appointed a receiver to oversee Mr Madoff firm’s assets and customer accounts, while the 70-year-old banker has been released on $10m bail.  Mr Madoff founded Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities in 1960, but also ran a separate hedge fund business.  According to the US Attorney’s criminal complaint filed in court, Mr Madoff told at least three employees on Wednesday that the hedge fund business - which served up to 25 clients and had $17.1bn under management - was a fraud and had been insolvent for years.  He said he was “finished”, that he had “absolutely nothing” and “it’s all just one big lie”, and that it was “basically, a giant Ponzi scheme“, the complaint said.  If found guilty, US prosecutors say he could face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $5m.

FOX News 29th December 2008

Adam Bold Founder of The Mutual Fund Store discusses the Madoff scandal on Fox News and explains how this could have been avoided and what remedy Madoff investors will have.

CBS News 15th December 2008

Victims who lost their life savings are speaking out as investigations continue into Bernard Madoff’s $50 billion investment scam that went on unnoticed for decades.

Here’s a video showing Bernard Madoff talking about Stock Market Investment.  Makes you wonder what was going through his mind trying to tell people how to invest knowing he was actually swindling them of the money they owned.