Bernard Madoff

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present the rise and fall of a founder to the modern era in world financial trading and the biggest Con Artist in stock market history, Bernard Madoff. This is a time based progression of a man that was possibly doomed from the start to be a fraud and manipulator of the system; as the expression goes: “An apple does not fall to far from the tree.”

This document how he ran Hedge Funds, some legitimately and some illegitimately. It will provide well investigated information as to who was involved and when they jumped on this “Too Good To Be True” investment fraud. Through the efforts of a competitor, how this whole $50 billion scheme was discovered and still asks the question why was he not caught earlier. This document does not provide all the answers; the author does not intend to do this. It is merely to open the eyes of those investors who are so arrogant and greedy, that someone who was brilliant at the game eventually got caught.

Greatest Con Artist in United States History

Bernard L. Madoff is by all parties involved was the Greatest Con Artist in American History. The overall goal of this paper is to document the rise and fall of one of the most influential Investors and Developers of a 21st Century New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). By following his career, we will see what could have leaded him to being famous instead of infamy! His contribution, with the assistance of his brother, of implementing computer technology reduced the trading process time from weeks to a matter of a single day. A man who had all the makings to be the most respected developer of 20th Century investing, but instead let his greed, ambition and arrogance take over and ruin the reputation of his family and the industry he was so successful in! In Leadership Theory there is a concept of people are born with leadership traits. If this is true, then Madoff was born with certain traits and into the right...