Madoff pleads guilty

[Genii Lodus]

BBC News

Disgraced US financier Bernard Madoff has pleaded guilty to all 11 charges surrounding a $50bn (£35bn) fraud.

Madoff said he was "deeply sorry and ashamed" shortly before the judge ordered him to be jailed.

Madoff, 70, ran a Ponzi scheme where early investors were paid off with the money of new clients. He said it had been running since the early 1990s.

The hearing has heard from a number of Madoff's thousands of victims. At least 20 had asked to speak in court.

"I cannot adequately express how sorry I am for what I have done," Madoff told the court.

He said that when he started the fraud, he wrongly hoped it would only be for a limited time.

"I realised that my arrest and this day would inevitably come," he said.

Since his arrest in December, Madoff had been confined to his luxury Manhattan apartment. He is due to be sentenced on 16 June.

Money laundering

A former chairman of the Nasdaq stock market, Madoff has been a Wall Street figure for more than 40 years.


He is the only person accused in the giant fraud surrounding his firm, Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities.

Madoff's 11 charges include four counts of fraud.

In addition, he has pleaded guilty to three counts of money laundering, making false statements, perjury, making a false filing to the US financial watchdog, and theft from an employee benefit plan.

'A genius'

One of Madoff''s victims, Burt Ross, a former mayor of New Jersey town Fort Lee, told the BBC he did not expect to recover a single cent of the $5m he invested.

"Bernard Madoff is a genius," said Mr Ross. "You're dealing with the greatest con artist probably in the history of the world.

Madoff relied on 'irrational euphoria'

"He created a mystique and associated with extraordinarily well respected and revered people, and so he was given the benefit of the doubt by financial regulators who blew it badly."

Investigators say they are continuing efforts to recover all the money Madoff has stolen, but most commentators - and most of his investors - say it is highly unlikely that any more than a very small amount will be found.

Mark Raymond, a lawyer representing some of Madoff's victims, said it would be wrong to think of them all being multimillionaires.

Despite widespread press coverage of famous names and a wealthy elite, Mr Raymond, of law firm Broad and Cassel, said many were normal working people, including a retired couple from Atlanta.

"He's 82, she's 78, and they are both looking for work because they have lost everything," he said.

Not sure if the trial would have been particularly prolonged giving the overwhelming evidence of this bastard's wrongdoing but at least some money is saved by not having to go through with the whole process. I hope the sentence is at least long enough that he has no hope of ever living free again since he really deserves nothing better after ruining so many people's lives.

[Samuel]

Wasn't this posted before or is this a different con artist?

http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic. ... 1&t=132482

Here we go. Inexplicably it is in testing.

[Kodiak]

Madoff: 'I knew this day would come'
One of Wall Street's biggest swindles ends in guilty plea on 11 charges. Judge orders him to jail.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Bernard Madoff, who stole billions from investment clients, was ordered jailed Thursday after pleading guilty to all 11 criminal counts in one of Wall Street's biggest swindles ever.

"I operated a Ponzi scheme," said Madoff to the packed courtroom, after U.S. District Judge Denny Chin told him to explain his crimes.

"I thought it would end quickly, but it proved impossible," said Madoff, who stole from more than 4,000 victims through his investment firm. "I am ashamed for these criminal acts. I always knew this day would come."

U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin remanded the 70-year-old to jail following his confession.

He could face a maximum 150-year sentence. His sentencing was set for June 16.

Madoff admitted that he never invested his clients' money, and that he deposited the funds into a "Chase Manhattan" bank.

"When money was requested, I paid it out from the Chase account," he said.

As Madoff wrung his hands and made other nervous gestures, the judge suggested that he pour himself a glass of water.

Madoff created a decades-long scheme in which new investments were used to fund payoffs to earlier investors, to falsely create the appearance of legitimate returns.

Richard Friedman, an accountant who said he lost $3.1 million to Madoff, told CNN that he hopes Madoff is sentenced to the full 150 years and that he "lives a very long life" in prison.

"The crime is really unimaginable," said Friedman. "It's not just a typical Ponzi scheme. It affects society as a whole. You don't just have to be a Madoff investor to be affected by this."

Friedman also blamed the Securities and Exchange Commission for allowing the scheme to go undetected for so long, and said that Madoff's family members are probably complicit and should go to prison.

"There's no way he could have acted alone," said Friedman. "There had to be other people involved. The whole family, as far as I'm concerned, once proof becomes available, should be thrown in jail."

In Thursday's court proceeding, Madoff faced many of his alleged victims -- with 50 courtroom seats reserved for them. Some of the investors entrusted all their savings to his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC.

Madoff had successfully avoided detention after his December arrest, posting $10 million bail and cloistering himself with his wife in their $7 million Manhattan apartment.

He was able to remain in his residence, despite accusations from federal prosecutors that he tried to hide his assets from seizure by mailing diamond-studded jewelry to relatives. Only a fraction of the missing money has been recovered.

So, it doesn't seem like anyone is too surprised about the plea, least of all Madoff. Is there really nothing that the victims can do to recover their money? Is it stashed in Swiss accounts or with other family members, and does anyone believe that Madoff managed to pull this off without anyone else noticing? This has got to be a low-point for America, sentencing an elderly man to 150 years when he'll serve at most 15-20 before his own end. Meanwhile, hundreds of victims are ruined for generations

[Darth Wong]

What about all of the people who cooked up all of those derivatives scams? I love the way nobody in the press will call them "scams". Instead, they say "financial products so convoluted that no one understood what they were buying".

News flash: when you trick someone into buying something even though he doesn't understand what you're actually selling him, that's called a "scam". At least, that's what they call it when Joe Blow does it. I guess when Joe Banker does it, then it's called something else.

[Genii Lodus]

Don't venture to testing so never saw that. This is at least slightly more advanced in that he has actually plead guilty now.

[Kodiak]

What about all of the people who cooked up all of those derivatives scams? I love the way nobody in the press will call them "scams". Instead, they say "financial products so convoluted that no one understood what they were buying".

News flash: when you trick someone into buying something even though he doesn't understand what you're actually selling him, that's called a "scam". At least, that's what they call it when Joe Blow does it. I guess when Joe Banker does it, then it's called something else.

At least Madoff admitted what it was, a Ponzi Scheme. It's like how the news can't call lies "lies" anymore, but rather "questionable facts" or "interesting viewpoints". These scams, schemes, swindles, and cheats are usually "unorthodox banking methods", "disreputable bookkeeping", or "unlawful business practices". I've seen people embezzle and scam thousands of dollars who caught more heat than these guys who steal billions. If AIG was "too big to fail" then maybe some criminals are "too big to convict"? I say again, Banking Industry. I can't believe the only person in the media who's giving Americans an honest viewpoint on this is John Stewart.

[Kodiak]

Since we've somehow gotten 3 topics on the same subject, can a benevolent Mod please merge threads into N&P?


Done, but the effect of the third thread being posted in testing means that it is minimally useful for discussion, so that one will be left out.
~Pablo

[aerius]

Ok, so Madoff's in jail, but what about the hundreds of people, minimum, who were complicit or actively aided him in his scam? A single person can't make $50 billion disappear and successfully cover it up for over a decade, you need people on the inside to cover the tracks and cook the books. His counterparties would need to fake the trades & contracts and cook their own books or else the trades won't clear on the exchange which is an instant game over. Or maybe the trades didn't clear and someone at the exchange covered that up. Just to keep track of all this crap would take a dozen accountants who are in on the scam, plus all the traders who are making the trades.

[Beowulf]

Ok, so Madoff's in jail, but what about the hundreds of people, minimum, who were complicit or actively aided him in his scam? A single person can't make $50 billion disappear and successfully cover it up for over a decade, you need people on the inside to cover the tracks and cook the books. His counterparties would need to fake the trades & contracts and cook their own books or else the trades won't clear on the exchange which is an instant game over. Or maybe the trades didn't clear and someone at the exchange covered that up. Just to keep track of all this crap would take a dozen accountants who are in on the scam, plus all the traders who are making the trades.

He didn't make any trades. He just claimed that he was doing them. He only needed to fool the auditors, who were in on the scheme.