Bernard Madoff and his scam

Today it is difficult to deceive businessmen, and even simple people to involve in any questionable deal. But several decades ago, financial pyramids were created very successfully, because of which millions of people suffered. Some lost only a part of their savings, while others lost a fortune. A vivid example of such a ruinous scheme is Bernard Meidoff's scam. It affected not only the American society, but also the largest foreign companies.

Biographical information

Probably, many heard that there was such a swindler Bernard Madoff. Who is it, where did he come from and where did he study? He was born and brought up in the family of Jews. In the late 50s of the last century, he graduated from high school, after which he decided to pursue higher education at Hofstra College, which is located in New York. After graduation, he received a bachelor's degree in politics. In his student years, Madoff did not lose time and worked part-time in several places. As a result, they collected an amount of five thousand dollars, which was used to create their own company called "Madoff Investment Securities." Later, when it was successful, the businessman invited to work together his brother Peter, and then two nephews and two of his sons.

What did Madoff do?

Bernard Madoff participated in the creation and operation of one of the American stock exchanges - NASDAQ. Its main task was to buy and sell shares, various securities, which was supposed to bring profit to investors.

It is interesting that the firm Meydoff was one of the 25 largest participants in the trading operations of this exchange. In addition, he is rightfully considered the pioneer of electronic trading. After all, Bernard Madoff was the first who transferred all document circulation to electronic mode. Who is he, if not an innovator? After him, computerization and other companies gradually began to apply.

Career takeoff

In the 90 years, the company of a successful merchant has noticeably started to go up. At that time, he managed to become chairman of the board of directors of the exchange, and also headed the board of directors (SD) of the hedge fund "Madoff Securities International", which was founded in 1983. This high posts Meidoff does not end - in 1985 he participated in the foundation and was a member of the SD of the company "International Securities Clearing." The latter was known for its operations on financial clearing, settlements between firms and even countries on a non-cash basis.

Charity

In addition to commerce, Bernard Madoff was engaged in charity. He set foot on this path after one of his nephews died of leukemia in the early 2000s. Since then, Madoff has often donated decent amounts to medical research on cancer control. Together with his lawful wife, the businessman founded his own fund, which provided donations to various Jewish charitable events, actions, educational institutions, theaters, etc.

Numerous sums were also invested in the election campaigns of some American politicians. So, for various reasons, Bernard Madoff supported financially precisely the representatives of the Democratic Party. In addition, he supervised the treasury of the board of attorneys at the business school at Yeshiva University.

The world-famous scam

In the early 2000s, the world became famous for the swindler Bernard Madoff, whose pyramid is considered the largest in history. As the statistics show, the injured person is up to three million, and financial organizations - several hundred. In total, the damage was estimated at almost $ 65 billion.

How did it all start? Fund "Madoff Investments Securities" was reliable and profitable with respect to investments, as its investors received a decent and stable profit - about 13 percent per year. Among the clients of the fund were individuals as well as various organizations, banking institutions, corporations, etc. At that time, the company Meidoff, according to experts, was considered one of the best market makers in the stock market, so no one had any suspicions.

Exposure came in 2008, when Madoff confessed to his sons that his investment fund is a huge lie. They all told the authorities, and soon the founder of the fraud was arrested. As it turned out, the investments entrusted to him were not used for the last thirteen years. And the police found out that the fund did not make transactions on the exchange at all, because there are no data on them. Also, the collapse of the whole scheme was prompted by large investors to return the invested funds of $ 7 billion, but there was no such money in the fund.

In the creation of the financial pyramid businessman was accused in 2008, and the following year Bernard Meydoff was sentenced by the court to 150 years of imprisonment. The list of indictments included perjury, money laundering, fraud, etc.

Many believe that the businessman had accomplices, since it is beyond the power to do such a thing alone.