So you've probably heard the big news... Bernard Madoff, a longtsnaindg leader in the US financial services industry and influencial figure as former chairman of the NASDAQ was charged today with a record breaking $50 billion fraud.

Madoff has taken responsibility for what amounted to "basically, a giant ponzi scheme." Charles Ponzi only ever handled millions of dollars... Ponzi would be proud!

Bernard Madoff arrested over alleged $50 billion fraud
REUTERS c/o WASHINGTONPOST.COM - Friday, December 12, 2008 00:40 EST

Bernard Madoff, a quiet force on Wall Street for decades, was arrested and charged on Thursday with allegedly running a $50 billion "Ponzi scheme" in what may rank among the biggest fraud cases ever.

The former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market is best known as the founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, the closely-held market-making firm he launched in 1960. But he also ran a hedge fund that U.S. prosecutors said racked up $50 billion of fraudulent losses.

Madoff told senior employees of his firm on Wednesday that "it's all just one big lie" and that it was "basically, a giant Ponzi scheme," with estimated investor losses of about $50 billion, according to the U.S. Attorney's criminal complaint against him. [...]

On Thursday, two agents for the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation entered Madoff's New York apartment.

"There is no innocent explanation," Madoff said, according to the criminal complaint. He told the agents that it was all his fault, and that he "paid investors with money that wasn't there," according to the complaint.

The $50 billion allegedly lost would make the hedge fund one of the biggest frauds in history. When former energy trading giant Enron filed for bankruptcy in 2001, one of the largest at the time, it had $63.4 billion in assets.

Continue to the rest of the Washington Post article.

Technorati Tags: Ponzi Scheme Statistics White Collar Fraud

The age old dilemma... To side with the ninjas? Or with the pirates?

Personally, there's something about the ninja that I find appealing. But after having grown up on the water, there's a certain nostalgic element in pirates that interests me.

Captain Hook types need not apply

No longer limited to searching for mermaids and gold doubloon, pirates today seek hefty ransoms (often in the millions), help to launder money and are tied into the criminal underworld on many levels.

Baldwin Kramer's blog on financial crime posted several useful links as well as an article describing the types of ransoms, how pirates and hawala networks go hand in hand, and a general overview of the flow of cash involved in high seas piracy.

Check out Baldwin's blog and see the abbreviated post below.

Pirates
BLOGSPOT.COM - Thursday, December 4, 2008
Good ol' Pirates were in it for gold, women and rum. Nowadays they seem to settle for cash. Is it? How does that work... pirates hijacking a vessel and demanding a ransom. The vessels' owner jumps in a helicopter and drops a suitcase loaded with dollars on deck?
[...]
According to experts, the typical pirate ransom is being paid in bags of cash. The bags are handed over to an 'intermediary' on shore, who will pass the bags to the next person in the chain. Hawala type networks come in to play. Some firms have specialized in dealing with all angles of the piracy business.
[..]

Continue to the rest of Baldwin Kramer's post including some useful links.

Technorati Tags: Funny/Food for Thought

So Cyber Monday came and went with not much of a stir. As the days of December pass and transactions on the worldwide web increase to some of the highest levels of the year, internet fraud and identity theft become common place.

Think you're immune to these Internet diseases? You might want to reconsider...

N.L. RCMP use officer's story to warn about identity theft
CBCNEWS.CA - Thursday, November 20, 2008, 17:46 NT
Newfoundland and Labrador RCMP are warning the public about how easy it is to become the victim of identity theft by telling the story of one of their own officers.

The RCMP said Thursday at a news conference that people should be more vigilant and shred unnecessary documents as scams to obtain personal information become more prevalent.

RCMP Const. Jim Roberts found himself the victim of such a scam after he moved to St. John's and accessed his PayPal account to change his address and other information.

A few days later, he received an e-mail from that looked like it was from PayPal asking him to verify the changes he had made by providing more information. He followed the link provided to what he thought was a secure PayPal site.

Continue to the rest of the CBC News article.

Technorati Tags: Online Retail Store