Bernard Madoff

An individual or group of individuals believed to be operating internationally created a website that mimicked the website of the U.S. Securities Investor Protection Corp. (SIPC) “in an apparent attempt to target [Bernard] Madoff victims” in a fraud scheme, SIPC said.
SIPC and the SEC issued warnings immediately, as did the court-appointed receiver in the alleged [...]

Our new poll asks a simple question: “Is The Average Autosurf/HYIP Promoter Smarter Than The Average FBI Agent, Secret Service Agent, Postal Inspector, IRS Investigator Or SEC/CFTC Investigator?”
You may vote only once. There is an option of “Other” in this poll if you don’t want to limit yourself to a “Yes” or “No” answer.
This poll [...]

After Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme was exposed in December 2008, Beverly Hills hedge-fund manager Bradley L. Ruderman wrote a letter to clients assuring them them their money was safe and deploring Madoff’s “chicanery,” federal prosecutors in the Central District of California said.
“[S]uch disgraceful practices will never happen under my watch,” Ruderman declared in the letter.
Less [...]

Ka-boom! A federal judge has frozen the assets of alleged Ponzi schemer Richard Elkinson, accused of fleecing investors in Massachusetts by telling them he brokered deals for government uniforms and uniforms worn by Olympic athletes.
Meanwhile, the attorney general of the United States ventured to Florida today and gave a dramatic speech at the Forum Club [...]

UPDATED 1:25 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) AdViewGlobal-related stories comprised eight of the 10 “Most Popular” posts on the PatrickPretty.com Blog in 2009, as determined by a software scoring system that measures a range of data. The result suggests that readers were intensely interested in coverage of the controversial autosurf.
The finding also suggests that AVG members were [...]

Both state and federal prosecutors in Michigan have been attacking Ponzi schemers and affinity fraudsters. Yesterday the office of Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox charged three men with racketeering for their roles in an alleged time-share Ponzi scheme targeted at senior citizens.
In a separate Michigan case, federal prosecutors have announced the guilty plea of Richard [...]

And to think that only months ago — in February 2009 — various members of AdSurfDaily wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee trying to elicit support for Ponzi schemes. The letter-writing campaign was spearheaded by “Professor” Patrick Moriarty and pushed by the Pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum.
But now the FBI has told the committee, led by [...]

One year ago today Bernard Madoff uttered a memorable phrase, describing his securities business economically as “one big lie” — and his Ponzi house of cards came tumbling down.
Even as Madoff was uttering those three words to his sons and the FBI soon was to knock on his door, the insiders behind the AdViewGlobal (AVG) [...]

Federal prosecutors and the FBI demonstrated again this morning that people who enable Ponzi schemers are subject to arrest and prosecution.
Today’s announcement that two computer programmers for Bernard Madoff have been charged with serious felonies could send shockwaves across the so called autosurf “industry,” which relies heavily on computers and programming tweaks to fleece participants.
Charged [...]

As the FBI and IRS executed search warrants at the Florida office of attorney Scott Rothstein this morning amid allegations he ran a covert Ponzi scheme that could have drained as much as $500 million from investors, prosecutors up north were concentrating on arresting lawyers in a separate case involving insider trading on Wall Street.
U.S. [...]

David G. Friehling was one of Bernard Madoff’s “key enablers,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said today after Friehling pleaded guilty to nine criminal charges.
Friehling, 49, Madoff’s small-shop accountant, faces up to 114 years in prison, but has agreed to cooperate with the government, Bharara said.
“David Friehling was one of the key enablers of Bernard Madoff’s [...]

Dear Readers,
From time to time I publish a post in letter form. This usually happens when a post in story, editorial or essay form does not seem appropriate. This is one of those times.
Honestly, just how strange could things get in Ponzi Land?
Ponzi Land, which relatively few people outside of law enforcement even knew existed [...]

Bernard Madoff has made friends in prison and “spends time” with Carmine Persico, a reputed former Colombo crime family boss, and Jonathan Pollard, convicted of spying for Israel in a case that strained America’s relationship with Israel in the 1980s.
Madoff’s cell mate is a convicted drug dealer, and Madoff eats pizza cooked by a convicted [...]

A 68-year-old Texas woman has been charged with running a $500,000 Ponzi scheme.
Julia Ann Schmidt was indicted in Waco. She now joins a roster of other senior citizens recently implicated in alleged Ponzi schemes or convicted of crimes in which a Ponzi was the modus operandi.
Federal prosecutors said today that Schmidt posed as an agent [...]

UPDATED 1:33 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The failure yesterday of San Joaquin Bank in Bakersfield, Calif., brought the total of bank failures in the United States this year to 99.
With weeks remaining in the year, it is a virtual certainty that failures will top the 100 mark. Banks have been failing at an average rate of [...]

To many residents of Florida, Michael Riolo was their Bernard Madoff.
Riolo, 38, of Boca Raton, was sentenced to more than 24 years in prison (293 months) today for bilking investors in a $44 million Ponzi scheme. The scheme began in 1999 and collapsed in 2008.
“During these tough economic times, it is more important than [...]

It was before Bernard Madoff and before Sir Allen Stanford. President Obama was candidate Obama. Sarah Palin, the little-known governor of Alaska, would not become part of the public consciousness for nearly another month. Few people had heard of the so-called “Arby’s Indians.” Fewer yet could instantly place Uruguay or Panama on a map or [...]

We’ve previously pointed out that, in recent times, some of the actions filed against financiers and fund managers — and the findings of investigators — have read like works of fiction. On Friday, for example, Irving Picard, the trustee in the Bernard Madoff case, asserted that Madoff appears not to have purchased securities for customers [...]

UPDATE 2:49 P.M. EST (U.S.A.) At a gathering of creditors today, Irving Picard, the trustee overseeing the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, said he could find no evidence that Madoff even purchased securities for customers in the past 13 years. Cash came in — and immediately went out — to sustain the Ponzi, [...]