To the early investors. In a pyramid scheme the early investors make out like bandits and usually the late people get fucked when the system collapses. That's why Madoff didn't like people withdrawing their capital, just taking the annual gains was fine as long as there were new investors. Anybody who cashed out until recently made excellent returns over the years. (yes I know they can be held accountable for the profits, but good luck getting it back) A pyramid scheme is simply a REDISTRIBUTION of money. No money was lost, it just got redistributed...
Elements within the SEC were definitely involved in the scam. Made-offs own daughter is married to a SEC investigative attorney. Back to the religious connections. A lot of these guys could easily pack up and do the exact same setup in another country. No one else has access to the level of global connections these cabal members have. It's based on religious connections. All the largest pathological crooks and scam masters operate under the guise of fanatical religion. It does not matter which religion. If you go to Utah, you find anyone religious , you know he is involved in an OTC shell or a pyramid scheme. If you want to purchase a shell corporation to set up a scam operation quickly, the largest source of shell corporations is Utah. And most of the shells are set up and operated by some of the most religious people in Utah. Look at Bush. The biggest scam master of all, wears his religion on his sleeves. Lest you forget, the insufferable retard never fails to remind everyone how religious he is.
That's what the original Ponzi scheme was. He was not embezzling or stealing, he was running it as honestly as he could, aside from the fact that there were no real investments, just expenses. The only real question is whether Madoff took big losses on his strategy or simply let cash lie in very low risk/very low reward instruments. The fact that he did not run the country months ago as the crisis really hit, makes me he fell into the same mental complex the original Charles Ponzi did.
Look at Bush. The biggest scam master of all, wears his religion on his sleeves. Lest you forget, the insufferable retard never fails to remind everyone how religious he is. ---------------------------- This is a political tactic. It's a take away from the Jihad. We have religion other than oil.:eek:
The Jihadists have the same modus operandi. The global Jihadist cabal is supported by fanatical religious zealots. made-off wears a well tailored suit, the jihadists wear turbans. If you want to scam a lot of people, in a vast international scale, the best and fastest method is to hook into some fanatical religious cabal. It is a tried an true method. The best part is the cabal members will forgive and stay quiet since they don't want to "soil" the reputation of the religion. We can observe "made-off" real time. Look at the major news papers and it is almost like made-off does not exist. A small blip in fine print here and there, but nothing major. Most of the hard hitting facts are coming from independent blogs and forums. "made-off" had/has major help in stratospheric levels of power. He'll get off ok. Maybe fake cardiac arrest and then court mandated "house arrest" in South of France for the rest of his life.
Perhaps this will convince some of my buy-and-hold friends with financial advisors that there is no way to evaluate which of these people can be trusted. While I am sure that many of them are trustworthy, I am just saying that there is no practical way for the investor to find out who is okay and who is not. I have tried for years to convince friends who ask me for financial advice that if you want to buy and hold (which probably nobody here on ET does), at the very least send the $ directly to the institution, bypassing the brokers and advisors. Fidelity, Vanguard, TRPrice or a discount Web broker may not help you make you any money, but at least they aren't likely to steal it from you. BTW, there is no need for ethnic slurs here. Crooks come in all shapes, colors, and sizes. Mary
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ed124e12-d374-11dd-989e-000077b07658.html In a dire year for mutual funds, the Amana Trust Income Fund, the main Muslim investment fund, has trumped those from all other faiths in the US by losing only 25.8 per cent of its value for the year â half the average 44 per cent loss for US stock funds.
that's a very healthy level of skepticism the OP has. I wouldn't be so incredulous myself if the media reported more than jus the $50 billion number. what's the estimate on the total amount invested? total amount paid out over the years. these figures should be available already. it will be interesting to find out when most of the money was stolen.
I said on another thread, 100 billion total on the scam, and Switzerland with his take, unknown amount, but large. Bloomberg had the total at 36 billion through the week before Christmas. 25 investors grew to 4000. this is huge. The guy is a sociopath. What isn't widely know was, Hitler was a billionaire. With all the power he had, money was meaningless, yet he stole it anyway. This guy is a megalomaniac of the same degree. Go read some of the minutes at the SEC meetings. He coldly threw this in their faces, only he knowing what he was really saying. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/dec/28/bernard-madoff-fraud-investigation-offshore This story grows and grows. And when they get to Switzerland, what Banks will they find that aided, abetted, and hid money from the US Treasury? They can't help themselves. And hopefully, this 'll finish them off for good.