Bernie Madoff Scandal

The Madoff Affair was one of the largest business scams in the modern era. Bernie Madoff was successfully able to con many independently wealthy individuals and highly respected financial organizations with his deception. He went on to become one of the most revered investment brokers of all time. He used his highly respected title as the Chairman of NASDAQ to gain the trust of the groups he committed the fraud against. Madoff was able to use his reputation and stature to prevent anyone from gaining the knowledge of the scheme he was actually manipulating. As explained in the PBS Frontline report none of his clients actually knew how he invested their funds and few of those ever even asked. Madoff’s actions led to the question, if someone would

In his paper, Organizational Sustainability: The Three Aspects that Matter, Joseph Coblentz believes in order for an organization to experience long term success it must pay particular attention to its morals (2002). Coblentz states “Leadership, management and staff not only act ethically, but are also perceived as doing so” (2002, p.4). Bernie Madoff’s actions were anything but ethical and morally correct. His company lied to its clients from the initial moment they begun to do business together. Madoff promised to invest his client’s money but actually only used their money to fund his own personal interest and the Ponzi scheme he used to hide it. He intentionally misled his clients when they did inquire of how exactly he was able to get the exact profitable returns on investment he always seemed to get. However, as Joseph Coblentz states “Organizations can go for a long time while staff at any level are engaging in ethically questionable practices without being detected or sanctioned. Over time, however, word will get out” (2002, p.4). Madoff may have gotten away with his unethical business tactics for more than thirty years, but he was caught and has since paid a heavy