According to Henny Sender of Financial times, Madoff charged no performance or managing fees, instead only commissions on trades. Thus a case of churning (placing too many useless trades to generate commissions). Where this commissions went? (they need to be seized to repay investors).
Exactly. Just another reason why people in the hedge-fund community questioned why he wouldn't be running his own hedge-fund ( with the performance and management fees attached ) if his performance was really that outstanding. In other words, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.