Madoff Questions the scam that shocked the whole country
1. A Ponzi Scheme is when one set of investors are paid unreal returns out of money received from another.
2. Madoff promised all his investors the "holy grail" as they called it which left no one wanting to turn that down. I think Bernie got away with his scheme because everyone he sold it to he made them believe he was trustworthy, reliable, a good person, and that people were safe with him. Madoff had been exposed to the schemes as a child and knew how to work them. Lastly he got involved with charities and made them invest which looked good on the surface but only led to more damage in the end.
3. A Ponzi Schemer is someone who is very cunning. They seem to have lots of knowledge on what they are talking about. Of course they are amazing liars. They tend to be quick on their feet and very nice at first take. In the video they were described as sociopaths.
4. The SEC was so oblivious because Bernie was the master of tricking people. Madoff sat in on many of the SEC committees as well as his family so he had their trust. Also they were not able to do the digging that was needed to find out it was a scheme because they had not fully recovered from the 30's.
Bernie Madoff started his firm with $5,000 that he saved from when he worked as a lifeguard.
5. I think Bernie Madoff did this because he was just insane. To do this to so many people you have to be a sociopath or have some issues. As a child he was constantly around rich people who had it all but his family was not rich. He was just trying to be like the people he was constantly around hat would look down on him. That is no excuse though.
Credits:
Created with images by Abode of Chaos - "Bernard Madoff, painted portrait _DDC5191"