Madoff OKs Settlement With SEC

Eight employees got disciplined, however

(NEWSER) - SEC staffers managed to miss Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme for more than a decade despite numerous warnings, but that is apparently not a fireable offense. The agency disciplined eight employees involved in the case, with the most severe punishment being a 30-day suspension coupled with a demotion, reports the Washington Post . The others got a range of lesser penalties, including pay cuts and, in one case, only a "counseling memo." More»

Maybe that's why SEC was 'asleep at the swtich,' says critic

(NEWSER) - The mother of the chief lawyer for the Securities and Exchange Commission reaped $1.5 million in dirty money from Bernie Madoff, court documents are revealing. Attorney David Becker has been named in a clawback lawsuit seeking funds to repay investors ripped off in Madoff's $65 billion Ponzi scheme. The apparent conflict of interest involving Becker raises troubling questions about the SEC's failure to stop Madoff earlier, despite a raft of warnings, notes the New York Daily News . "If families of high-ranking SEC officials were heavily invested in Madoff it may help explain why the SEC was less than vigilant in scrutinizing his activities," said a former federal prosecutor. "We know they were asleep at the switch." More»

(NEWSER) - The SEC's inspector general says the agency had plenty of chances to take down Bernie Madoff and whiffed on every one, Bloomberg reports. In a report released today, H. David Kotz writes that the SEC received "detailed and substantive complaints over the years to warrant a thorough and comprehensive examination” of Madoff. And yet it never performed a "competent investigation or examination." More»

Investigator's questions could have exposed Ponzi scheme in 2004

(NEWSER) - An SEC investigator whose questions could have exposed Bernard Madoff's fraud in 2004 was shifted to an unrelated case after raising the alarm, the Washington Post reports. One of the supervisors who told the staffer to focus instead on a mutual funds investigation later married Madoff's niece, and the relationship is now being probed by the SEC. More»

Ponzi schemer a Luddite who crawled on all fours to align rugs

(NEWSER) - "Neat freak" may be one of the more polite epithets used to describe Bernie Madoff, who comes off as an obsessive-compulsive nut in a Fortune profile by James Bandler and Nicholas Varchaver. In immaculately tailored suits, he dusted furniture and got down on hands and knees to straighten rugs. Madoff, now jailed, would startle female employees by dropping trou to ensure his shirt buttons were vertical. More»