On December of 2008, the public discovered the biggest financial scam in history of 65 billion dollars. It was a several year long plan executed by a man no one would have suspected, the man who was so involved, that man was Bernie Madoff. As a former NASDAQ chairman, stockbroker, and financial advisor, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison in 2009 for this actions and became the face of financial corruption everywhere. His impact was so phenomenal that it played a role in the economic crash of 2008. Overall these series of events had a serious impact on the financial world and emphasised the corruption. Bernie Madoff wasn’t always known as the heartless, evil, business tycoon that scammed millions, once upon a time he was a well respected leader. Starting with $200 bucks on hand for his assets and no liabilities, Madoff was registered his broker-dealer firm to the SEC just after he got married. He had a talent for trading over-the-counter stocks and had great success in the field leading to a very quick development …show more content…
His business was only possible to join if the investors had connections with the members. During the scam it was mentioned to the investors that got in to keep it on the down low and most investors agreed as they didn’t “want to anger Madoff and risk losing their privileges”(). This secretive mindset led to the long lasting duration of the scam. Another big factor that helped Madoff not get caught early was that he was mentioned in 1992 in major SEC investigation. And was found innocent therefore when he was accused of a ponzi scheme again on 2006 Madoff prepared his clients for the SEC. He flat-out lied to the investigators and it paid off at the time as the SEC "found no evidence of fraud,"() and close the case Madoff also stayed under the radar all these years even with extraordinary annual returns by crediting the active bull