The new exhibits consist of 6,157 pages of interviews, letters, e-mail messages, telephone records and other background material gathered during Mr. [David] Kotz’s 10-month investigation of how the commission handled, and mishandled, numerous tips and warnings it received about Mr. Madoff over the years. His full report,released last month, found the agency had received six substantive complaints since 1992 ”” and botched the investigation of every one of them. He found no evidence of any bribery, collusion or deliberate sabotage of those investigations.
In fact, Mr. Madoff said in the jailhouse interview that, on two occasions, he was certain it was only a matter of days or even hours before he would be caught. The first time, in 2004, he assumed the investigators would check his clearinghouse account. He said he was “astonished” that they did not, and theorized that they might have decided against doing so because of his stature in the industry.
Interesting that victims seem to be looking to another “government bailout” here by suing investigative authorities.
And what remedy would you suggest when “investigative authorities” fail to perform the duties they were given authority to perform and paid to do?
Madoff isn’t the only operator of Ponzi schemes in this short century which have come to light, just the largest. And, for that matter, I think there are still some around. I hear advertisments from one outfit that promises investment instruments that (a) do not flucuate with the markets and (b) give double digit returns. Sound familiar? Sound plausible?