For years, Madoff was an admired figure on Wall Street and a seemingly very savvy investor and successful business man, but the ostensibly large returns he was generating and the growing balances shown on clients’ account statements were all illusions. Bernard Madoff was actually running a Ponzi scheme, using money from some of his investors to make payouts to others. During the stock market meltdown of 2008 and client desires to retract their investments, Madoff exposed his now failed scheme and confessed to his sons who alerted authorities. He was arrested and sentenced to serve 150 years in prison (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Farrell, 2015). Many of the investors that had trusted Bernard Madoff were now broke and angry. Many question why the checks
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To begin with, after the trial and his prison sentencing, there has been 17.5 billion dollars’ worth of claims filed against Madoff (Kevin & USA, n.d.). Madoff’s bankruptcy trustee Irving Picard, has recovered or reached settlement agreements for more than $10.5 billion on behalf of the burned investors (Cohn, 2013). J.P Morgan Chase was one of the large financial institutions that has been accused of playing a part in the scheme by not acting on the warning signs that some of their bankers had recognized and brought forward (Farrell, Fraedrich, & Farrell, 2015). In 2014, J.P. Morgan was fined 2.6 billion dollars for its part in the Madoff scheme (Johnson, 2014). According to Johnson (2014), this fine is the largest ever handed down to a bank but amounts to only penny’s on the dollar compared to the profits made during the Madoff days. He further reports that no disciplinary action will be handed down from the bank to any of the employees who may have been involved (Johnson, 2014). The owners of the New York Mets, who lost 500 million when Madoff’s scheme crashed, announced they had entered into a $162 million settlement in the lawsuit filed against them by Madoff’s bankruptcy trustee, but were granted several years to pay (Vardi, …show more content…
According to Kopytoff (2015), there were a total of 15 people that were charged, plead guilty and/or were convicted at trial in connection with the investigation. His wife never faced any charges because it was never proven that she or any of the family had any knowledge of his criminal activity until he confessed (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Farrell, 2015). Ruth Madoff is filled with pain over the scope of the damage her husband caused, and now carries the burden of shame and disgrace left in his path of wrong doing. She has lost all resemblance of life as she once knew it. She has been kicked out of her houses, cast out of her social circles, and forced to live like a pauper (McNeil, Tresniowski, Marx, Rozsa, Dowd, Egan, & Nussbaum, 2011). She lost one of her son’s to suicide because of his overwhelming sense of guilt from turning his father in and because of the relentless badgering by attorney’s and accusations that he knew about and played a part in his father’s scandal (Daly, 2011). According to McNeiL, Tresniowski, Marx, Rozsa, Dowd, Egan, & Nussbaum, (2011), Ruth wasn’t even allowed to attend her son’s memorial because she had refused to cut all ties with her husband at the request of her children; but has since stop having any contact what-so-ever with her husband. Some sources even report that she plans to divorce him
To begin with, after the trial and his prison sentencing, there has been 17.5 billion dollars’ worth of claims filed against Madoff (Kevin & USA, n.d.). Madoff’s bankruptcy trustee Irving Picard, has recovered or reached settlement agreements for more than $10.5 billion on behalf of the burned investors (Cohn, 2013). J.P Morgan Chase was one of the large financial institutions that has been accused of playing a part in the scheme by not acting on the warning signs that some of their bankers had recognized and brought forward (Farrell, Fraedrich, & Farrell, 2015). In 2014, J.P. Morgan was fined 2.6 billion dollars for its part in the Madoff scheme (Johnson, 2014). According to Johnson (2014), this fine is the largest ever handed down to a bank but amounts to only penny’s on the dollar compared to the profits made during the Madoff days. He further reports that no disciplinary action will be handed down from the bank to any of the employees who may have been involved (Johnson, 2014). The owners of the New York Mets, who lost 500 million when Madoff’s scheme crashed, announced they had entered into a $162 million settlement in the lawsuit filed against them by Madoff’s bankruptcy trustee, but were granted several years to pay (Vardi, …show more content…
According to Kopytoff (2015), there were a total of 15 people that were charged, plead guilty and/or were convicted at trial in connection with the investigation. His wife never faced any charges because it was never proven that she or any of the family had any knowledge of his criminal activity until he confessed (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Farrell, 2015). Ruth Madoff is filled with pain over the scope of the damage her husband caused, and now carries the burden of shame and disgrace left in his path of wrong doing. She has lost all resemblance of life as she once knew it. She has been kicked out of her houses, cast out of her social circles, and forced to live like a pauper (McNeil, Tresniowski, Marx, Rozsa, Dowd, Egan, & Nussbaum, 2011). She lost one of her son’s to suicide because of his overwhelming sense of guilt from turning his father in and because of the relentless badgering by attorney’s and accusations that he knew about and played a part in his father’s scandal (Daly, 2011). According to McNeiL, Tresniowski, Marx, Rozsa, Dowd, Egan, & Nussbaum, (2011), Ruth wasn’t even allowed to attend her son’s memorial because she had refused to cut all ties with her husband at the request of her children; but has since stop having any contact what-so-ever with her husband. Some sources even report that she plans to divorce him