Ex-Nasdaq Chair Accused of ‘Stunning’ $50B Fraud in ‘Giant Ponzi Scheme’
The former chairman of the Nasdaq stock market has been charged with a “stunning” $50 billion securities fraud after his sons alerted officials that their father had confessed to running “a giant Ponzi scheme.”
Bernard Madoff, 70, was accused in civil and criminal complaints of paying returns to investors in an investment advisory business with the principal of other investors, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Andrew Calamari, associate director of enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission in New York, said the agency had asked a judge to seize the assets of Madoff’s investment business, according to the story.
“Our complaint alleges a stunning fraud that appears to be of epic proportions,” Calamari said.
Madoff’s two sons worked in the business, but they said their father was secretive about its operations, according to the Wall Street Journal. After clients sought $7 billion in redemptions that Madoff couldn’t pay, he told his sons he had been running a Ponzi scheme and estimated the fraud at $50 billion, the criminal complaint says.
A New York Times story says Madoff’s name had been legendary, although some hedge fund managers had questioned his spectacular returns. The alleged fraud could be the largest ever on Wall Street.
