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Bernie Madoff

Friehling: Another Madoff domino falls

By Tom Johansmeyer | Nov 4th 2009, 12:20PM EST Filed Under: Insiders, Law, Scandals

Another player in the Bernie Madoff saga has fallen. His longtime auditor, David Friehling, pleaded guilty in federal court on Tuesday to charges of securities fraud, investment adviser fraud, making false filings with the SEC, and obstructing or impeding the administration of the Internal Revenue laws (among others).

Despite the plea, Friehling still told U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, "At no time was I ever aware Bernard Madoff was engaged in a Ponzi sche...

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Madoff accountant pleads guilty in Ponzi scheme, but will he sing?

By Lita Epstein | Nov 3rd 2009, 12:15PM EST Filed Under: People, Investing

Bernard Madoff's former accountant David Friehling pleaded guilty Tuesday, according to a report from the Associated Press. Will he stay silent like Madoff or will he spill his guts to minimize his jail time?

Friehling (pictured) was the longtime auditor for Madoff, and was the first person charged after his boss in the epic Ponzi scheme, but so far, he appears to be keeping silent. Friehling pleaded guilty to charges that are punishable by up to 108 years in prison. It is unclear whether he plans to expose what he knows in a bid to get leniency and a reduction of his jail time.

Frank DiPascali, the former chief financial officer...

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Bernie Madoff 'astonished' Feds flunked 'accounting 101' and missed his fraud

By Sam Gustin | Oct 31st 2009, 9:45AM EST Filed Under: People

It wasn't enough for felonious Ponzi patriarch Bernard Madoff to bilk his clients of over $60 billion in assets. Now, the jailbird stock swindler is trash-talking about the very federal authorities who should have caught him and stopped the largest financial scam in history. In a jailhouse interview released late Friday by H. David Kotz, the Securities & Exchange Commission's inspector-general, Madoff disses SEC investigators as bumbling bureaucrats and says he was "astonished" that no one caught him earlier.

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Madoff: Chillin' with mobsters and spies

By Tom Johansmeyer | Oct 22nd 2009, 12:00PM EST Filed Under: Scandals, Headline news

Bernie Madoff is getting used to his new neighbors. Gone are the days of Montauk and Manhattan, and he isn't sharing his space with topless dancers.

Now, he says goodnight to a drug pusher, chills with a former mobster, and hangs with a convicted spy ... and these guys are probably saying, "I hang around with Bernie...

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Despite Bernie Madoff masks, the Halloween business isn't spooked

By Jonathan Berr | Oct 17th 2009, 5:00PM EST Filed Under: Economy, People

For candy makers, Halloween is like Christmas and New Year's Day all rolled into one. Ditto for those who sell masks and other nick-knacks of the spooky holiday. Many companies in the Halloween business are expecting more tricks than treats this year especially with new products such as the "Ponzi" mask that looks suspiciously like swindler Bernie Madoff.

Halloween is not immune from the economy. According to the National Retail Federation, consumers are expected to spend $4.75 billion on the spooky holiday, down from $5.77 billion a year ago. People on average are planning on spending $56.31, down from $66.54 last year, according to the NRF. Not surprisingly, an NRF survey found most Americans are planning to celebrate more frugally because they...

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A 12-step program for becoming a white-collar criminal

By Eric Wahlgren | Oct 15th 2009, 8:30AM EST Filed Under: People, Tyco International

Did Bernard Madoff just wake up one day and decide to steal $50 billion from his investors? Probably not. Other figures in the growing pantheon of white-collar criminals -- names like Dennis Kozlowski (Tyco), Jeffrey Skilling (Enron, pictured) and Bernard Ebbers (WorldCom) -- most likely didn't decide to start their evil schemes overnight, either. No, the path from good to bad likely involved progressive steps -- 12 to be exact, if you believe new research published in the International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics.

After examining court records and drawing on their expertise in clinical psychology, the Canadian researchers who wrote the report say the road from riches to ruin is awfully similar...

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Madoff fights to win, gets some cred

By Tom Johansmeyer | Oct 13th 2009, 4:15PM EST Filed Under: Scandals, Headline news

Allen Stanford gets kicked around, but Bernie Madoff can clearly throw down some serious smack. While the former's being moved from one facility to another because he's lost some ground on the cell block, Madoff just earned himself some props.

The engineer of the largest (known) Ponzi scheme in history apparently got into an argument with another geriatric inmate at the Butner,...

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Bernie Madoff: Ponzi schemer punches prisoner in the penitentiary

By Bruce Watson | Oct 13th 2009, 9:00AM EST Filed Under: People, Media

On Tuesday, the New York Post reported that Bernie Madoff got into his first prison fight. Apparently, he and another inmate were arguing about the stock market when the discussion escalated into shouts. Madoff's unnamed assailant shoved him and Madoff shoved back, knocking the man down. According to eyewitness reports, "as the attacker tried to stand up straight, Madoff hovered over him red-faced and glaring."

Madoff's assailant ran away, leaving Madoff with the field of honor and increased "cred." Since the fight, Madoff and his attacker have apparently made up, and are now playing...

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Madoff trustee files $200M suit against Bernie's kin over 'family piggy bank'

By Sam Gustin | Oct 2nd 2009, 7:50PM EST Filed Under: Economy, People

When Bernie Madoff, the master Ponzi schemer, was sentenced to 150 years in the slammer, many of his victims felt some measure of justice had been served. But others were furious that members of Madoff's family appeared to have tap-danced away with millions in the months leading up to their patriarch's arrest.

Now Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee, has filed a $199-million lawsuit against the disgraced financier's sons Andrew and Mark, his brother Peter, and his niece Shana, alleging that they benefited from Madoff's epic $60-billion fraud by using his investment firm as a "family piggy bank" to fund their lavish lifestyles.

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