Bernie Madoff: The Greatest Thief

Bernard Madoff was the mastermind of the largest Ponzi scheme in history that collected over $50 Billion dollars. Madoff was a prominent business man and stockbroker on Wallstreet where he made most of his money. He served as the chairman of NASDAQ and was involved in high places, which made him especially powerful and initially unable to get caught. Although Madoff states his scheme began in the 1990's, experts contend otherwise that it actually began as far back as the 1970's. Madoff conducted his firm in a way that defrauded his investors despite the fact that they did not know. A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment process that returns money to investors or uses new investors money instead of generating legitimate profit. This method of scamming people can be dated back to the 1920's and is derived from a man named Charles Ponzi. As a result of Madoff's actions, he has humiliated and swindled people leaving them in agony and distress. He received the maximum punishment of 150 years in prison. This story is one of the most important and interesting in the last decade because it is one of the greatest crimes ever. No where has something on this scale been pulled off before. It has also brought more attention to the financial situation in the United States with economic inequality.

Below is the new trailer of Chasing Madoff. It is a documentary about Harry Markopolos who single handily uncovered the Madoff's scam.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62L7VxMDg68

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Madoff
http://www.forbes.com/2008/12/12/madoff-ponzi-hedge-pf-ii-in_rl_1212croe...