Bernard Madoff ripped off lots of folks for years and for big bucks, around 50 BILLION. That is not a typo, 50 Billion is the correct amount. A fraud expert at the consulting firm Kroll INC. said

“It’s on such a massive scale, It’s mind-boggling. 50 Million would be a large fraud, 50 Billion is absolutely frightening.”

This rip-off had been going on for years. What was the SEC doing? How could they miss this blatant fraud? A couple reasons come to mind real quick. SEC people paid off? Told not to be heavy on regulation? (Let everyone regulate themselves.)Dictator Bush likes self-regulation.

We all know how well self-regulation works. NOT!!! Remember Enron? Much more recent then Enron is the fact that SEC Chairman Christopher Cox in March, a few days before Bear Stearns nearly collapsed into bankruptcy, told reporters the agency was closely monitoring the five firms and had

“a good deal of comfort”

in their capital levels. Then as federal officials orchestrated the rescue, Bear Stearns was bought by rival JP Morgan Chase with a $29 billion government backstop.

It seems that warning signs existed for years and were ignored or over-looked by regulators and investors alike. The investors downfall was caused by greed, the market was in Bull mode and the greed caused them to rush in and invest, probably ignoring the warning signs, or not even looking for any.

Screw you Bernie. The bottom line is Madoff should get a heavy prison sentence in a hard core prison ( not a country club ) and the bozos at the SEC at the very least all need to be axed for sheer stupidity, and investigated for possible bribe taking.

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