Questioning Bernard Madoff

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been transfixed by this Bernard Madoff scandal. I spoke to two people over the weekend who told me they knew folks who invested in Madoff’s fake funds. The ripples of this humongous rip-off are just beginning to be felt.

What floors me is the fact that Madoff was the former chairman of Nasdaq–a pillar of the financial community. This was not some sketchy, fly-by-night boiler room. Madoff supposedly represented everything that was good about Wall Street. And now he’s been exposed as possibly the biggest scam artist of all time. It makes you think that NO ONE ON WALL STREET CAN BE TRUSTED.

How did he get away with this for so long? I have no idea. But there a few people who questioned Madoff’s eerily consistent returns.

Check out this one story published in MAR/Hedge in May 2001, “Madoff tops charts; skeptics ask how,” by Michael Ocrant. “Most of those who are aware of Madoff’s status in the hedge fund world are baffled by the way the firm has obtained such consistent, non-volatile returns month after month and year after year,” wrote Ocrant.

This story was followed by another piece in Barron’s written by my former colleague at TheStreet.com, Erin Arvedlund, titled “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” (registration required to see full story.)

And here’s another interesting blog post commenting on Madoff’s scam, written by an investor who looked into this funds for a client.

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Tags: Barron's, Bernard Madoff, Erin Arvedlund, MAR/Hedge