The Bernard Madoff Case

There is overwhelming evidence that Bernard Madoff did not work alone. He may have masterminded the entire scheme but he has accomplices along the way that helped him to carry out his elaborate fraud and several have been charged for the crimes. For example, between 1998 and 2008, Madoff wrote $84 billion in checks to just four people (Johnston, 2014). According to Johnston, in 2002 alone, 318 checks were written from Madoff's 703 account to a Norman Levy, who had a private offshore bank; who would in turn send handwritten checks back to Madoff for the very same amount of $986,301. This should have caught the eye of Madoff’s J.P. Morgan banker, Richard Cassa, but during his testimony in the lawsuit he stated that he had no idea that it was his duty to report suspicious activity nor had any idea about the purpose of Madoff's 703 account (Johnston, 2014). …show more content…
Instead of conducting audits as he should have, he simply rubber stamped everything that was presented to him from Madoff or his employees (Kopytoff, 2015). He also acknowledged that he also prepared fraudulent tax returns for Madoff, his brother and sons. Friehling’s actions helped to conceal the crime. Another person, Paul Konigsberg, 78, an accountant and lawyer; admitted in federal court in Manhattan that he knowingly assisted Madoff in backdating trades on their mutual clients' annual account statements and filing false tax returns (Huddleston, 2014). Madoff’s key lieutenant, Frank DiPascali, was also arrested and charged with facilitation of the Ponzi scheme (Bandler, Varchaver, Burke, Kimes, & Abkowitz, 2009). DiPascali created phony returns for Frank Avellino, who used to run a so-called feeder fund, Jeffry Picower, whose foundation had to close as a result of Madoff-related losses, and others which also leads us to believe that they were knowledgeable about Madoff’s Ponzi scheme as