A Ponzi Scam Paradise

The pyramid or ponzi scam recently ran on Wall Street has me laughing my ass off. All these so-called "smart guys" got taken to town on a polished up street hustle. The only street hustle easier than a pyramid scam is selling bricks as VCR's or CD players.

I believe I was about 8yrs old when I first learned what a pyramid scam was and have witnessed a ton of them work. Well, they work for only so long. Their are two rules of thumb when getting suckers for pyramid scams - make sure they are smart and greedy. The smarter they are - the easier mark they make.

Blinded by their greed and thinking they were too smart to be taken, Madoff had perfect marks. Throw in a complete breakdown at the SEC and Madoff had a Ponzi Paradise...

Credible and specific allegations regarding Madoff's financial wrongdoing going back to at least 1999 were repeatedly brought to the attention of SEC staff, said Cox.

Damaging the SEC's credibility in the Madoff case was the fact that a securities executive, Harry Markopolos, complained to the SEC's Boston office in May 1999. Markopolos told the SEC staff they should investigate Madoff because Markopolos felt it was impossible for the kind of profit he was reporting to have been gained legally.

Here is a list of the investors...

Client Name Total Location

Fairfield Greenwich Group $7,500,000,000 U.S.

Grupo Santander SA $3,200,000,000 Europe

Rye Investment Management (part of Mass. Mutual Life Insurance Co.), $3.1 billion. U.S.

Bank Medici $2,100,000,000 Europe

Fortis Bank Nederland NV $1,351,000,000 Europe

HSBC Holdings PLC $1,000,000,000 Europe

Natixis $617,000,000 Europe

Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC $612,000,000 Europe

BNP Paribas $480,000,000 Europe

BBVA $452,000,000 Europe

Man Group PLC $360,000,000 Europe

Reichmuth & Co $332,000,000 Europe

Nomura Holdings $304,000,000 Asia

Tremont Capital Management (also part of Mass Mutual), about $200 million U.S.

Aozora Bank Ltd. $137,000,000 Asia

Credit Mutuel-CIC $122,000,000 Europe

Dexia $115,000,000 Europe

Unicredit $103,000,000 Europe

Union Bancaire Privee "hundreds of millions of dollars" Europe

Benedict Hentsch & Cie SA $48,300,000 Europe

Fairfield Town Employees Board and Police and Fire Board (Fairfield, CT) $41,900,000 U.S.

Mortimer B. Zuckerman Charitable Remainder Trust $30,000,000 U.S.

The Phoenix Holdings $15,000,000 Asia

Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services $14,300,000 Asia

Societe Generale below $13,700,000 Europe

Credit Agricole below $13,700,000 Europe

Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation $8,000,000 U.S.

Nordea $6,600,000 Europe

Neue Privat Bank $5,250,000

Sen. Frank Lautenberg family charitable foundation amount unknown U.S.

Wunderkinder Foundation (Steven Spielberg charity) amount unknown U.S.

former Philadelphia Eagles owner Norman Braman amount unknown U.S.

New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon amount unknown U.S.

J. Ezra Merkin, chairman of GMAC Financial Services amount unknown U.S.