Tim Worstall

It is all obvious or trivial except…

 

 

Bernie Madoff’s money

June 30th, 2009 · 5 Comments

One of the biggest mysteries of the Madoff affair is what happened to all the money.

Eh?

Have I missed something somewhere? Madoff was running a Ponzi sscheme, no? For decades?

He was paying retunrs to early investors, yes?

So that’s where the money has gone, into the pockets of those who invested with him for decades.

What’s the mystery?

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Tags: Finance

5 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Serf // Jun 30, 2009 at 9:33 am

    Where there actually were investments, and I understand that there were, they would have lost much of their value.

  • 2 Johnathan Pearce // Jun 30, 2009 at 10:57 am

    The interesting question, from a legal point, is whether the beneficiaries of this man’s scam are liable to to pay out those who were ripped off.

  • 3 Tom // Jun 30, 2009 at 11:55 am

    Jonathan,

    I think this came up when Madoff’s scam first came to light, and the answer was ‘yes’ . They were the beneficiaries of a crime and had to cough it up.

  • 4 Zorro // Jun 30, 2009 at 3:11 pm

    Tom, presumably they could only be expected to cough up profits they made, not their own original investments?

  • 5 Monty // Jul 2, 2009 at 7:12 pm

    I think there was a legal decision in NY State that their capital would also be at risk.

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