- Could Mammograms Fall Victim to Obamacare? by Liz Peek
- Let Down and Felt Up? by E.D. Hill
- Mr. wOw: Falling in Love Again With 'Marlene'
- Caption This!
- Announcing the Winner of Our 'Caption This' Contest
- Interview With an Angel: Anne Rice Catches Up With wOw
- Should Americans with the higher health-risk profile of obesity pay higher premiums for health insurance?
- Breadwinners in Burqas, by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
- Liz Smith Confesses – Her Night of 'Broken Embraces'
- Liz Smith: Let's Get Educated
- Could Mammograms Fall Victim to Obamacare? by Liz Peek
- Liz Smith Confesses – Her Night of 'Broken Embraces'
- Mr. wOw: Falling in Love Again With 'Marlene'
- Caption This!
- Liz Smith: Let's Get Educated
- Breadwinners in Burqas, by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
- Let Down and Felt Up? by E.D. Hill
- Interview With an Angel: Anne Rice Catches Up With wOw
- Announcing the Winner of Our 'Caption This' Contest
- Joan Juliet Buck Solves the Health-Care Issue
- Could Mammograms Fall Victim to Obamacare? by Liz Peek
- Let Down and Felt Up? by E.D. Hill
- Caption This!
- Mr. wOw: Falling in Love Again With 'Marlene'
- Announcing the Winner of Our 'Caption This' Contest
- Should Americans with the higher health-risk profile of obesity pay higher premiums for health insurance?
- Interview With an Angel: Anne Rice Catches Up With wOw
- Liz Smith Confesses – Her Night of 'Broken Embraces'
- Liz Smith: Let's Get Educated
- Breadwinners in Burqas, by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
wOw Features
Reader Voices
Caption This!
Dear Margo: When Dad/Gramps Just Ain't Interested
66 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment
Well, there are several ways to look at this. First of all, the old adage "If it sounds too good to be true - it is too good to be true". If someone offers you a position and offers you big bucks - your first question should be, "Who do I have to do in?" Many of Bernie’s clients were extremely well-heeled. Apparently they wanted to be MORE well heeled. If you read about the scam you will note that the interest on their money was above ridiculous. Wouldn’t you ask questions? Wouldn’t you be a bit leery of the investment? Wouldn’t you talk to an attorney or someone for further evaluation?
Also, his smaller investors, it was a fast way to make a fast buck. All of us would like to get a better return for our money, however, I prefer the slow and steady growth rather than the "fast and fuzzy". You just gotta ask questions.
As to his wife. I know a broker who took money from his clients - each month he would sit down and make up phony statements and mail them out. Thereby the client thought he had more money than he had in his account. His wife came in a couple of times a month to post in his books for his trades, however, she never looked at the statements. He is now in a White Collar prison - she still lives here and divorced his a##.
I regret to say that I don’t think he will serve more than 15 years - if that! And, if he does get out - how much do you want to bet he will have money to continue his life. If you’re a crook, you’re a crook and you know all the in’s and out’s of the con game!
Lady Gator, you are dead on with the "if it sounds too good…" statement.
I started in banking in 1978 at the age of eighteen and didn’t know what a ‘debit’ was, but it didn’t take me long to understand ‘risk and reward’. When I was in my early twenties, I dated a man that flew jets - corporate charter and military contract work. He met a client that was a very well known ‘financier’ in the San Diego / La Jolla area. I remember being absolutely astounded by the wealth; he owned Formula One race cars (what fun that was!), sponsored a team of triathaletes that participated in the Iron Man event in Hawaii (I attended that as well), had an unbelievable home in Rancho Santa Fe with a subterranean garage that housed several exotic cars, parties along side the mayor and ‘who’s who’ of San Diego, and the list goes on. I certainly had never been exposed to anything so extravagant!
Eventually, this guy purchased a Gulf Stream II and a couple of Lear Jets, leased space at Lindbergh Field and asked my then BF to lead his ‘flight department’. On top of it all, the guy was weird (in my opinion), really a sort of recluse… I kept asking about the nature of his business (I guess I was a bit of a skeptic even at a young age) and was provided a very impressive glossy sales collateral piece that explained the huge returns available by investing in his portfolio. It never felt right to me - and wouldn’t you know it - turned out to be a huge Ponzi scheme. In the interest of space, I won’t go on about the underhanded way he tried to ‘hide’ the jet by having the ex-BF fly it to Switzerland, or the colllect calls he made to our home from the Metropolitan Correctional Center - yikes!
I have seen so much fraud over the years - from small time to big - it’s mind boggling. I still cannot believe that people that have the intelligence to generate significant savings somehow let the due diligence required to safely invest their funds slip.
BTW - loved ’The Good Wife’s Guide’… I’ve seen it before, but it’s always good for a ton of laughs - thanks for sharing!
Lisa B — There was a cartoon in our local paper — Bernie in the prison yard with a huge roll of bills. One inmate was saying to another "Bernie asked me to work in the laundry for him - paid me double for the day - instead of $6 dollars I got $12 - told me he would triple it tomorrow - wow, I like this Ponzi scheme stuff".
And so it goes. I so agree with your statement -"I can’t believe that people who have the intelligence to generate significant savings somehow let the due dilligence required to safely invest their funds slip." However, as long as their are people out there who are not alert and cautious there will be more Bernies born.
Another saying I’ve always heard - "There is a sucker born every minute". People like Brenie, and others, are just waiting for you to arrive!
Lisa — Your trip down memory lane reminds me of the rest of the story about our local broker. He filched his clients to pay off his huge gambling debts in Las Vegas. He took money from 50 of his clients. It appears he left $10,000 in each of their accounts. (Wasn’t that nice of him). The paper described him as being non-partial in his selection as to his ‘victims’. It appears he even bilked his mother-in-law (who was living with him) our of her life savings. A substantial amount. She was in the court room and cheered when he was sentenced.
Several months later my husband and I saw him working ( replete in prison uniform)on a highway detail filling pot holes. What a winner!
I guess he and the Bernie’s of the world think they will never be caught!
Bernie isn’t the only one we should be applauding law enforcement for catching. There are some newcomers on the scene as well. Will the judges be as harsh on them? Here are just a few more — which makes me wonder: Who is the most greedy, the Ponzi schemers or the Ponzi schemees?
• Nicholas Cosmo suspected of a $380 million Ponzi scheme in which investors paid a minimum of $20,000 for a promised return of 48 percent to 80 percent a year.
• George L. Theodule promised his investors that he could double their money within 90 days. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/business/28ponzi.htmlscp=1&sq=Troubled%20Time%20Bring%20Mini-Madoffs%20to%20Light&st=cse
• David Hernandez took in over eleven million dollars from investors who were promised big returns. http://www.centralillinoisnewscenter.com/news/local/48809017.html
• James Stanley Koenig, Gary T. Armitage, and Jeffery A. Guidi arrested for conning thousands of people for more than a decade in a $200 million Ponzi scheme. http://www.examiner.com/x-4106-California-Statehouse-Examiner~y2009m5d22-California-AG-arrests-three-for-200-million-Ponzi-scheme
• David Copeland Reed promised a 30% compounded return over three months, or a 45% rate of return in his Ponzi scheme. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1515449/fbi_announces_arrest_in_gold_unit_ponzi.html?cat=3
rocky rocky — That is exactly what I was saying. Promised big returns - 48 percent to 80 percent a year - doubling money within 90 days. What were all of these people thinking.
And, as I said — "if it sounds too good to be true - it IS to good to be true". You just gotta be careful out there. Lots of crooks after your money.
Caning.
I’m serious - it’s cheap, painful and the guys would rather get it over with than pay attorneys to drag it out and try to avoid checking into Club Fed.
The pain and humiliation is far more visceral, thus having a deterrent effect, than the vague idea of "you might go to jail."