> If you believe that, I got a bridge I can sell you cheap-—it’s in Brooklyn. And how do you want to handle the down payment.
Having worked in a previous life for one of the largest Audit Firms in the world in the Risk Management field, I do believe it, and if you are offering investments to the general public you probably better believe it too.
Auditors don’t specifically look for fraud; however they do look for the fairness and accuracy of the financial material as presented, and they are supposed to satisfy themselves of that. If satisfied, they are supposed to offer an Unqualified Opinion. If they have reservations, they can give a Qualified Opinion and state their reservations. It’s not much of an assurance, but it at least tells the investor that the numbers are/are not as they appear on paper.
For losses of this size and nature, involving an investment offered to the public, I would have expected the SEC to have more than a little bit of interest. And I would have expected their Auditor to be more than a little bit concerned. But then that’s just my personal view: your mileage may vary.
SEC CHAIR COX TO PROBE ROLE OF BERNIE'S NIECE, HUSBAND
An embarrassed SEC Chairman, Christopher Cox, said he is probing whether SEC staff allowed swindler Madoff to walk away from numerous fraud complaints filed with the SEC.... among the issues under investigation in a sweeping internal probe of the bungled case is that a Madoff family member was married to a onetime SEC official.
"The Commission has learned that credible and specific allegations regarding Mr. Madoff's financial wrongdoing, going back to at least 1999, were repeatedly brought to the attention of SEC staff, but were never recommended to the Commission for action," Cox said last night.
"I am gravely concerned by the apparent multiple failures over at least a decade to thoroughly investigate these allegations or at any point to seek formal authority to pursue them. Moreover, a consequence of the failure to seek a formal order of investigation is that subpoena power was not used to obtain information, but rather information voluntarily produced by Mr. Madoff and his firm," Cox said......
Shana Madoff Swanson, Madoff's niece has been married to Eric Swanson, assistant director of the SEC's Office of Compliance, Inspections and Examinations' market-oversight unit, since 2006. Eric Swanson, according to the SEC, had overseen two inspections of Madoff's firm in 1999 and 2004. He left the agency in 2006.
Shana Swanson is compliance attorney at Madoff's firm. Her father is Peter Swanson (Bernie's brother) who joined the firm in 1970 and is chief compliance officer at Madoff’s firm.
Bernie founded his investment firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, in 1960. Peter, his brother, joined the firm 10 years later; his nephew, niece and two sons also worked with him.
SOURCE http://www.nypost.com/seven/12172008/ business/madoff_family_ties_144527.htm
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POINTS TO PONDER You are working under the assumption that this “investment” plan was following established rules, regs, and laws. In fact, this swindler did not give a fig about any of that. He had a hidden agenda----and all of his activities went to advancing that agenda---all of it operated to fit the agenda. Rules, regs, and laws were nuisances and played absolutely no part in his scheme.