2009-09-12

Madoff proves SEC is incompetent

After the financial meltdown in late 2008 forced large redemptions to expose the $68 billion dollar ponzii scheme by Bernard L. Madoff, the criminal has been sentenced to 150 years of federal prison.



There are many questions however that are unanswered. The first is how the SEC didn't catch on sooner, and why were the 6 previous investigations in 1992, 2005, and 2007 dropped? The U.S. government is somewhat liable as well through the SPIC, which guarantees $500,000 per victim in protection on accounts that have holdings in actual securities and cash. So the second question is how much of the $420,000,000 that the SIPC trustee will pay to victims will be from tax payer dollars? It seems like it'd be more efficient to regulate responsibly rather than to pay out such insurance claims after the fact.

Interview with a Madoff victim


Madoff speaks about how Wall Street works in 2007 - portrait of a smooth, trusted, con artist