Bernard Madoff: Running A Ponzi Scheme

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The FBI defines white collar crime as: "frauds committed by business and government professionals. These crimes are characterized by deceit, concealment, or violation of trust and are not dependent on the application or threat of physical force or violence. The motivation behind these crimes is financial—to obtain or avoid losing money, property, or services or to secure a personal or business advantage". These crimes can cripple businesses and families life's savings. Bernard (Bernie) Madoff is one of the most well known criminals of white collar crime for running a Ponzi scheme with his multibillion dollar company (White, 2016). Bernard Madoff was born on April 29, 1938, in Queens, New York. When Madoff was young he had little interest …show more content…

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and theft from an employee benefit plan (Bernard L, 2009). Most simply put, Madoff committed investment fraud which involves the illegal sale or purported sale of financial instruments. Investment fraud is characterized by offers of low- or no-risk investments, guaranteed returns, overly-consistent returns, complex strategies, or unregistered securities. These schemes often seek to victimize groups with a common religion or ethnicity in order to utilize the common interests to build trust to effectively operate the investment fraud against them. The perpetrators range from professional investment advisers to a sports coach. Trust is what makes these schemes so successful. A common type of investment fraud is a Ponzi scheme which involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors offering overly consistent returns, unregistered investments, promised high returns with little or no risk, or secretive or complex strategies (White,

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