Preview

Bernie Madoff Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
692 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Bernie Madoff Essay
1. What is the ethical issue involved in the Madoff case?

The Madoff case if filled with numerous ethical issues. The case is considered to be the largest scam in our nation’s history. The Madoff case is a great example of how someone who did not care about his profession, as well as the all the personal relationships he had cultivated over the years. Bernie Madoff was involved in a scheme called a Ponzi scheme. Madoff would take money from new investors to pay off the current investor’s dividends. Since Madoff promised unrealistic gains this was the only way to pay his investors. The Ponzi scheme was Names after Charles Ponzi who had tricked investors about a century before Madoff. To keep giving earlier investors their promised return, Madoff had to continually draw new people into the scheme. His family who claim they did not know about the scheme was also involved bringing in new clients to invest with Madoff.
…show more content…
Do you believe that Bernie Madoff worked alone, or do you think he had help in creating and sustaining the Ponzi scheme?
As intelligent as Bernie Madoff may have been he could not have pulled of the country’s largest Ponzi without some help. The return on investment that constantly beat market averages should have sent up red flags to people inside the company. People within the company such as internal auditors, accounts and other in the internal system should have been really suspicious of the finical reports. Were the people in the Madoff’s office asleep at the wheel? Or was something else not publicized happening behind the scenes? There were just too many intelligent people who worked with Madoff not to see the writing on the walls. Auditing books for a couple of months may not have sent up red flags but the fact the scheme went on for 30 years may say more people were involved. The size of the scheme and the amount of money involved makes it unbelievable and almost impossible that he could have perpetrated a crime by

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Bernard Madoff “Ponzi Scheme” scandal was the biggest and lasted the longest financial fraud in the history of the US. Bernard Madoff was a financial adviser, and also the former chairman of the NADAQ. He established his investment firm named “Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC” in 1960. The Madoff Fraud is a typical “Ponzi Scheme”, in order to attract investors to give money to him, he convinced people to hand over their life saving, and promised them high returns rate, and then he used these money to make payments to those earlier investors. He took the investors for a $65 billion over the course of nearly two decades. In the end, Bernard was sentenced to maximum 150 years prison life and a forfeiture of $170 billion.…

    • 324 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the case of Bernard Madoff, an overview was provided that describes the fraud of the century. As a result of the Ponzi scheme, social attitudes toward the investment industry were lukewarm. I will describe the highlights of the case.…

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Bernie Madoff is known as The Great Ponzi. Bernie Madoff is a former American businessman,…

    • 349 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Bernard L. Madoff (Bernie) is still making news headlines. He is currently incarcerated for numerous illegal and unethical behaviors. I am going to: Describe three types of illegal business behavior alleged against Bernie and explain how the behavior is illegal or unethical. Name three types of parties who were impacted by the actions of Bernie and how. Describe three business safeguards that may have prevented the harm caused by Bernie. Describe three ways investors might have better protected themselves from risk. Describe three legal actions that possibly may be brought against Bernie under criminal or civil law. And provide an analysis…

    • 1722 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    2. Was Madoff’s scheme “extraordinarily evil” as the judge claimed? Yes, Madoff knowingly collected the life savings from people, including close friends, to support his own wants in life. When the charade was finished, many lost everything they had.…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bernie Madoff did not work alone. One reason is because a scheme of this magnitude would have been difficult for one man, even one as smart as Madoff, to pull off alone. Because of his long career and the amounts being traded at the end of 2009, the probable answer is that some people involved with Madoff were knowingly skirting financial rules and procedures. Some should be made aware of the legal fuzziness that exists within the financial sector. Such fuzziness has, in part, been deliberately created either by rule omissions or by tactics that circumvent such rules. The SEC cannot hold individuals criminally liable for breaking SEC rules. The SEC can fine companies and ostracize people and firms from publicly trading on financial exchanges, but that is all.…

    • 282 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bernie Madoff Scandal Essay

    • 3875 Words
    • 16 Pages

    Due at the Beginning of Your Regular Week 6 Lecture on September 24 or 26 (200 points)…

    • 3875 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Bernie Madoff Essay

    • 203 Words
    • 1 Page

    Bernie Madoff held numerous high profile positions in the stock market community. I would even go as far as to label him as the master of networking. After graduating from Hofstra College, he marries his high school sweetheart, and proceeds to work for his father-in-law’s accounting firm as an investment advisor (Gaviria, Smith, & McCoy, 2009). As Madoff’s trading business grows over the next several years, he joins multiple committees as he begins to fight for regulatory changes in order to make trades easier and more convenient, not to mention he had been in business for decades. This gives Bernie Madoff the persona that he is educated, responsible, and respectable; which leads his to be trusted by many investors. (Ferrell, Fraedrich, &…

    • 203 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Modern Day Visigoth

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Bernard Madoff is a modern day Visigoth for several reasons. He is one of the largest white collar criminals of all time. In fact, he has committed one of the most elaborate Ponzi schemes, which is considered to be the largest financial fraud in history. For those who do not know what a Ponzi scheme is – it is a fraudulent investment that pays returns to its investors from their own money, or the money of other investors, rather than through profits of the organization. The scheme entices investors with large amounts of returns or unusually consistent ones. In order to keep the operation running, new investors must contribute to the cash flow. If the scheme is not interrupted by the authorities, it is likely to fall part for reasons such as the promoter vanishing, the insufficient amount of new investors, or external market factors (such as a decline in the economy). Furthermore, Madoff is a former non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market. Madoff is considered to be a Visigoth for his monumental greed of money, poisonous lust for control, and blunt disregard for the well-being of others.…

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    3 Madoff

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Madoff was providing his clients with monthly investment statements and trade transactions that never occurred. He used new client’s funds to pay profits to existing clients. Which is typical in Ponzi schemes.…

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    It wasn’t done alone. Madoff had help from colleagues and it is even suspected that some of his family members were involved due to the fact that he brought in a lot of family members to the job over the years including his sons. His sons were actually the ones who reported him to federal authorities. Some people who were involved were Frank Avellino, Frank DiPascali, and Jeffery Picower. In order for the prosecutors to bring Madoff to court, they had to go through a series of junior employees and squeeze as much information from them to have enough supporting details and evidence to move up on the table. “Madoff had dealings with a variety of banks and hedge funds, and burned Madoff investors have tried to recoup funds from some of them. Madoff held an account at JPMorgan Chase that he used to shuffle money between offices in London and New York. In 2011, two Madoff investors sued the bank for $19 million, claiming they aided in his fraud, according to CNN. At the time, a JPMorgan spokesman dismissed the lawsuit as meritless.”…

    • 1418 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Many of Thomas Aquinas moral ethics are still relevant today in the United States simply because the natural and human laws are apart of the US Constitution which applies to everyone in the American society. Aquinas simply states a right or wrong solution to his models using works from Aristotle and the bible to justify the three laws he applies. Theft and robbery were acts that went against the natural law. Bernie Madoff was guilty of violating his human rights of the natural law by committing Theft, and Fraud. Bernie Madoff was a well-known and respected stockbroker who committed the largest white-collar crime in Wall Street history. Madoff was found guilty for eleven felony counts and sentenced to 150 years in jail. Madoff used a ponzi scheme to collect investors money giving the investors intentions each person would be promised a gain of ten percent or more. Madoff greed not only affected the rest of his life in a horrific way but it also affected the common good of the community.…

    • 440 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bernie Madoff Ethics

    • 1459 Words
    • 6 Pages

    This paper will discuss the matters of Bernard “Bernie” Madoff. Are his actions to be deemed unethical, immoral, or both immoral and unethical? Madoff plead guilty to conducting his $65 billion Ponzi scheme. This in turn led him to be charged with several counts of money laundering amongst other things. His world came crumbling down around him the day after the company’s Christmas party in December of 2008.…

    • 1459 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Even from the earliest points in his life, Bernie Sanders has been a powerful example of bravery. Born to Polish immigrants in 1941, Sanders was not blessed with prosperous childhood years, as he grew up in a cramped Brooklyn apartment. However, during these early years the future senator and now presidential candidate began to form an interest in the political world. In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, he proclaimed, “I saw unfairness. That was the major inspiration in my politics.” (bio) Being surrounded by economic and social disparity, Sanders decided to transcend and battle his way through the obstacles presented before him. During his time at the University of Chicago, he became an active leader in the Civil Rights movement, assisting in the organization of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Reflecting on his call to action, the senator states,…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bernard Madoff

    • 1489 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In court, he stated that he began by promising strong returns even though the stock market was not doing very well and the country was in a recession during the 90’s. Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC was his firm that was used to con thousands of people out of their money, some of the funds provided by his customers were, life savings or retirement funds. Madoff was not shy to admit that he knew the day…

    • 1489 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays