Biggest Ponzi scheme

[TexasDevilDog]

Now thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of investors confront losses that range from serious to devastating. Some families said on Friday that they believed they had lost all their savings. A charity in Massachusetts said it had lost essentially its entire endowment and would have to close.

According to an affidavit sworn out by federal agents, Mr. Madoff himself said the fraud had totaled approximately $50 billion, a figure that would dwarf any previous financial fraud.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/13/business/13fraud.html?ref=business

I don't think this will add confidence to a shaky market.

[Taylor]

Read about this earlier today. That's some crazy shit right there.

[Slowhand]

You shouldn't be investing every last dime of your savings.

[forever_frost]

Why can't I get people to trust ME with 50 billion? I mean...... really.

[AL P]

Why can't I get people to trust ME with 50 billion? I mean...... really.

All you need is a track record and to know a few people. One of my co-workers and I were talking about starting a fund tonight, we work for one now although it is small in comparison to what this guy had going, it only has $1.3 billion in assets. But we do return a legitimate 9% dividend to our investors on the first fund and around 8% on the second with an additional return when we sell assets. The whole conversation came up because we were talking about the future.

There is a lot of money that flies around in this country in these funds, you'd be suprised at how many billions.

What baffles me is that if you had $50 billion just the fees you would get from managing the fund would make you VERY wealthy, yet for some of these assholes that isn't enough. You could easily draw a $50 million a year fee to manage a fund of $50 billion, no one would even blink an eye at that.

[Yale]

I heard about it on NPR today. I think I'd be explaining why I took it from Belize, lol.

[thesource]

Nothing but pure greed . This country needs a make over starting at the top and working its way down .

[White trash wagon]

Interesting, we live in a country whre you can go to jail for 10 years for stealing a car, but millionaire's that steal billions get off with 2 years or less.

[thesource]

Interesting, we live in a country whre you can go to jail for 10 years for stealing a car, but millionaire's that steal billions get off with 2 years or less.

Thats the way it goes when you are part of the good old boy club .

[STANGGT40]

All you need is a track record and to know a few people. One of my co-workers and I were talking about starting a fund tonight, we work for one now although it is small in comparison to what this guy had going, it only has $1.3 billion in assets. But we do return a legitimate 9% dividend to our investors on the first fund and around 8% on the second with an additional return when we sell assets. The whole conversation came up because we were talking about the future.

There is a lot of money that flies around in this country in these funds, you'd be suprised at how many billions.

What baffles me is that if you had $50 billion just the fees you would get from managing the fund would make you VERY wealthy, yet for some of these assholes that isn't enough. You could easily draw a $50 million a year fee to manage a fund of $50 billion, no one would even blink an eye at that.

the only trick is finding $50 billion to manage and then actually being able to make enough of a return for the investors that they keep the money with you. i was reading that the normal fee is 1-1.5%...that's a nice chunk of change! $50 million would be on the low end!