Chasing Madoff

So Bernie Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme (where new people coming into the pool give money which is used to pay off longer term people). This is, clearly, fraud. And some people were Chasing Madoff about this.

For over a decade.

This is something frustrating that comes out very clearly in the movie. Henry Markopolos is the main pointman for this, who realised that Madoff was committing fraud after looking at the number for only an hour or so, but was never listened to. And there are others as well. They got together, and tried to alert the proper authorities. Who did nothing. They went to papers, including the Wall Street Journal. Which didn't publish anything.

In fact, it was only when the recession hit and Madoff couldn't keep the scheme going any longer that he himself owned up to it. And then people got interested in what Markopolos had to say.

And this movie is about what Markopolos and others went through, particularly Markopolos who feared for his life. Because Madoff had crime connections. He built up his fraud with several people being involved, and took otherwise innocent people for everything they had.

Watch this and wonder how many other Madoffs there are running similar fraud that no-one is hearing about...

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