Bernard Madoff Investment Securities: "One big Ponzi scheme"

Madoff Told Employees Business Was ‘One Big Lie,’ SEC Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... er=finance

By David Scheer

Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Bernard Madoff, president of Bernard Madoff Investment Securities, told employees that his business is “all just one big lie” and “basically, a giant Ponzi scheme,” the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said.

In a meeting yesterday at his Manhattan apartment, Madoff, 70, told two senior employees that he was “finished” and had “absolutely nothing,” the SEC said in a civil lawsuit at federal court in Manhattan today. He told the employees his business had been insolvent for years and estimated losses to be about $50 billion, the regulator said.

Madoff said he planned to surrender to authorities in a week, after he distributed some of his remaining $200 million to $300 million to select employees, family and friends, the agency said. He was arrested in a related criminal case today on a single count of securities fraud.

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Madoff investor found dead in NYC office
BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA | [email protected]
2:28 PM EST, December 23, 2008

A French hedge fund founder believed to have lost up to $1.4 billion investing with Bernard Madoff was found dead of an apparent suicide Tuesday in his midtown office, police sources said,

Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, the 65-year-old co-founder and chief executive officer of Access International Advisors, was pronounced dead at 8 a.m. inside his Madison Avenue office. Villehuchet had reportedly recently confessed to clients that he ran a fund that invested with Madoff, who was arrested on Dec. 11 for running what investigators call "a $50 billion Ponzi scheme."

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