Company News » Bernard Madoff: Who’s bad? Really, really bad?

Bernard Madoff: Who's bad? Really, really bad?

In the week Michael Jackson died, disgraced financier Bernard Madoff received a 150-year prison term for defrauding investors in his securities business, which was found to be a Ponzi scheme.

Bernard Madoff

A former non-executive chairman of NASDAQ, Madoff was sent to a federal
prison with no chance of parole. Federal prosecutors estimate client losses at
$65bn; incredibly, Madoff’s scheme went unnoticed since inception in 1960,
despite more than one investigation by the Securities & Exchange Commission
since 1999.

Among the ‘victims’ of the fraud are celebrities including film director
Steven Spielberg, actor Kevin Bacon and TV host Larry King and, from the UK,
Lady Victoria de Rothschild and Lord Anthony Jacobs.

But Madoff did not discriminate in taking funds from those of more modest
wealth. Said one attendee to the court ruling: “He stole from the rich. He stole
from the poor. He stole from the in-between. He had no values.”

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