Via Reuters: Bernard Madoff arrested over alleged $50 billion fraud
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
Wow. All I can think of is that that is more money than the Big 3 requested in their initial bail-out plea.
Beyond that:
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 2026, one of the largest at the time, it had $63.4 billion in assets.
Incredible.
It’s just happy, happy news these days: corporations collapsing, jobs disappearing, governor’s trying to sell Senate seats and now $50 billion frauds. I hate to ask what’s next.
One thing’s for sure: the word “billions” is being tossed about far too much and far too easily of late.
