Consumers Digest

Why do they do these things? What can a 70-year old man do with 50 billion dollars anyway?

... he could never spend it all. And five or even 10 billion would be a comfortable amount to leave to his heirs. Is it that the money doesn't matter as much as being able to get away with it? Is it that they think money will buy them women, jewels, mansions, yachts,etc.? Or do these kind of people just get a real kick out of defrauding others? NEW YORK (Reuters) Bernard Madoff, a quiet force on Wall Street for decades, was arrested and charged on Thursday with allegedly running a $50 billion "Ponzi scheme" in what may rank among the biggest fraud cases ever. The former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market is best known as the founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, the closely-held market-making firm he launched in 1960. But he also ran a hedge fund that U.S. prosecutors said racked up $50 billion of fraudulent losses. Madoff told senior employees of his firm on Wednesday that "it's all just one big lie" and that it was "basically, a giant Ponzi scheme," with estimated investor losses of about $50 billion, according to the U.S. Attorney's criminal complaint against him. A Ponzi scheme is a swindle offering unusually high returns, with early investors paid off with money from later investors. On Thursday, two agents for the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation entered Madoff's New York apartment. "There is no innocent explanation," Madoff said, according to the criminal complaint. He told the agents that it was all his fault, and that he "paid investors with money that wasn't there," according to the complaint. The $50 billion allegedly lost would make the hedge fund one of the biggest frauds in history. When former energy trading giant Enron filed for bankruptcy in 2001, one of the largest at the time, it had $63.4 billion in assets. U.S. prosecutors charged Madoff, 70, with a single count of securities fraud. They said he faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $5 million. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ and yes I realize that he has to be proven guilty, but he probably is, so I chose to ask these questions. stop trying to mislead me. The fact is that he had "control" over these investments. With overall 'control' the money was his to invest or re-invest as he saw fit.The man is a fraud.

Public Comments

1. G---R---E---E---D.
2. he didn't steal it, he lost it in bad investments.
3. All the legitimate ways of making money are already taken. You have to be new and innovative to survive in today's world.
4. The $50Billion were the fund loses, not his income.
5. It buys a lot of Viagra and Escorts.
6. And these were the types of people the tax payer is having to "Bail out"? They have spent half of the money and the economy has not gotten any better has it?
7. You grossly misunderstand the situation. The guy doesn't HAVE the money. That's the cumulative loss for ALL the investors. One investor's losses went to one of the other investors, so some of them lost money and others made some money, but the $50B isn't all together in one place, and there is no way to try to re-gather all the money that some investors "earned" (even though they "shouldn't have) so that it could be given back to the ones who lost money, since the money no-doubt went on to other investments.
8. These people do not recognize their mortality.Only sane individuals do.