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SEC Releases 477-Page Report On How It Missed Madoff
By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 5, 2009
Modified Sep 5, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 5, 2009
Modified Sep 5, 2009
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After offering a summary of how it bungled six warnings about Bernard Madoff's amazing investment firm, the Securities and Exchange Commission released the full 477 opus on its failings (PDF) last night. The Wall Street Journal reports on one glaring misstep, when in May 2003, an unnamed hedge-fund manager basically told an SEC examiner "that Mr. Madoff's self-described trading strategy didn't add up. The manager said the strategy wasn't duplicated by anyone else in the market, Mr. Madoff's accounts were in cash at month end, and there was 'always replacement capital,'" even saying, "These could be 'indicia of a Ponzi scheme" When the SEC investigated months later, it only focused on front-running and not on things like why there wasn't enough market volume for Madoff's trading strategy—and it didn't verify Madoff's trades through a third party either. Also, another hedge fund, Renaissance, was skeptical of Madoff's finances, but didn't tell the SEC because it assumed the SEC was keeping tabs on Bernie! A Renaissance portfolio manager wrote in 2003 internal e-mail, "Throw in that his brother-in-law is his auditor and his son is also high up in the organization and you have the risk of some nasty allegations."
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Bernard Madoff
ponzi scheme
SEC
securities and exchange commission
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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