When it comes to financial fraud, the Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme takes the cake. Madoff began his scheme in the late 1980’s, by promising incredible returns on money invested. However instead of investing this money like he said he was, he would deposit it into a bank account. When clients wanted their money back, he could simply withdraw from this account and pay the investors back with the incredible returns.
Obviously this type of fraud is not sustainable and relies on getting more and more clients, so the money continues to flow in. The second necessity for his scheme was to convince investors to stay invested rather than take out their money. He would take a commission for his service and could have constant access to all of the money invested. Finally when investors wanted too much money out, the whole scheme came crashing down around him since he could not pay.
When it was all said and done, he tricked investors out of nearly 65 billion dollars. Despite claiming to be the sole perpetrator in the heinous crime that ruined many peoples lives, I don’t think it would be possible for one man to trick so many without help.
Link:
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-bernie-madoffs-ponzi-scheme-worked-2014-7
Yang, Stephanie. “5 Years Ago Bernie Madoff Was Sentenced to 150 Years In Prison – Here’s How His Scheme Worked.” Business Insider. Business Insider, 01 July 2014. Web. 29 Jan. 2017.