Madoff Explains How He Concealed Fraud

By on October 31, 2009 in News 3

CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston reports:

In a wide-ranging jailhouse interview with SEC Inspector General David Kotz, convicted swindler Bernard Madoff explained how he managed to conceal his multi-billion-dollar fraud operation.

“It never entered the SEC’s mind that it was a Ponzi scheme,” Madoff said, because of “the reputation I had.”

“They thought the likelihood of Madoff being a big criminal was probably not something that was realistic,” said Paul Atkins, a former SEC Commissioner.

At the height of his career, Madoff was regarded as a financial genius, he even served as chairman of NASDAQ.

In 2003, Madoff was sure he would be caught and was surprised when investigators did not check his accounts to see if he had actually traded stocks – which he had not.

It is accounting 101, Madoff told the inspector general, to look at DTC – Depositor Trust Commission – to discover a Ponzi scheme.

“With one phone call they could have brought the whole thing down,” Atkins said.

“I worried every time,” Madoff said in the interview. “I wish they caught me six years ago, eight years ago”…

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  • http://www.squidoo.com/dublinow Dubli

    That is very scary. And many of us would fall into similar traps wouldn't we? Trusting someone's reputation instead of doing our own due diligence.

  • tonyviner

    I am not generally the biggest advocate of rape or rape-related things, but this fella should be raped hard. And when they are done raping him with their big, meaty, juicy, ummm…. Nevermind. Then they should rape him again, but this time do it in his butt.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/PDDVWRQVUPMKRGHURIEQVNYWHQ Sean

    the old saying ” you can't con an honest man” is true, people didn't look very close because they knew something had to be fishy to see returns that he was reporting and they didn't want to derail the gravy train.