Con Of The Century

摘要

Bernard madoff worked as a lifeguard to earn enough money to start his own securities firm. Almost half a century later, the colossal Ponzi scheme into which it mutated has proved impossible to keep afloat-unlike Mr Madoff's 55-foot fishing boat, "Bull".rnThe $17.1 billion that Mr Madoff claimed to have under management earlier this year is all but gone. His alleged confession that the fraud could top $50 billion looks increasingly plausible: clients have admitted to exposures amounting to more than half that. On December 16th the head of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, which is recovering what it can for investors, said the multiple sets of accounts kept by the 70-year-old were in "complete disarray" and could take six months to sort out. It is hard to imagine a more apt end to Wall Street's worst year in decades.