Watch The Trailer For ‘Madoff’ And Think About How You Could Have Avoided Schemes Such As Zeek And TelexFree

Bernard Madoff, played by Richard Dreyfuss, tells investors “Look, it’s a closed fund” in the ABC miniseries. Ponzi schemes often trade on suggestions of exclusivity.

ABC has made available the first trailer for “Madoff,” a network miniseries debuting Feb. 3, 2016. Richard Dreyfuss plays the notorious Ponzi schemer, with Blythe Danner starring as Ruth Madoff.

Bernard Madoff’s name first appeared on the PP Blog nearly seven years ago, on Dec. 13, 2008. It has appeared numerous times since then.

Says Dreyfuss, as Madoff, in the trailer: “You want to know how to get people to trust you with their money? I’ll tell you right now: You present it as an exclusive thing.”

Any number of the “programs” we have covered tried to sell Madoff-like exclusivity. One of them was Zeek Rewards, an alleged MLM fraud involving more than $850 million taken down by the SEC in 2012.

Zeek Rewards, according to the SEC, called itself a “private, invitation-only, affiliate advertising division” for Zeekler, a penny-auction “opportunity.”

Of course, the interest rate Zeek promised made Madoff look like an amateur.

As the PP Blog reported on June 10, 2012, a couple of months prior to the SEC’s Zeek action (italics added):

When Zeek’s story is compared to the tale of Madoff’s relatively modest (compared to Zeek) but unusually consistent returns of around 10 percent a year, Zeek is outperforming the notorious Ponzi swindler by a factor on the order of 30 to one. Zeek, though, insists it is not offering an investment. It also preemptively denies it is a “pyramid scheme” and plants the seed it will terminate any affiliate who suggests Zeek is offering an investment program.

Lessons flowing from Madoff continue to go unheeded — things such as suggestions of exclusivity and unusually consistent returns.

But with HYIPs, the danger signs may be even clearer: preposterous interest rates that dwarf Madoff’s “returns,” a presence of a scheme on the Ponzi boards such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup, menacing behavior by a company or its affiliates, cult-like qualities (such as allegedly existed at TelexFree), bizarre antigovernment rhetoric suggesting the presence of “sovereign citizens” or political extremists.

One of the classic refrains is that “it can’t be a scam because the company is registered.”

TelexFree, which allegedly generated $3 billion in economic activity, was “registered.”

So was Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC.

As was the case at Zeek, the TelexFree interest rate dwarfed that of Madoff. From the SEC’s 2014 TelexFree complaint filed years after Madoff made “Ponzi” household word in 2008 (italics added):

One version of the marketing presentation on the company website contained slides indicating that an AdCentral promoter could clear $2,296 per year on a $289 investment, that an Ad Central Family promoter could clear $11,599 per year on a $1,375 investment, and that a Team Builder promoter could receive as much as $39,600 per year.

The “Madoff” trailer is below. It includes lots of lessons for the mind and soul in just one minute — and it’s not just about making people think they are becoming members of an exclusive club. The con man serving 150 years in federal prison also made appeals to naked greed.

Your Ponzi-board sponsor may be doing the same thing to you right now.