The $17 Billion Fraud
Almost everybody has heard of Bernie Madoff, the infamous fraudulent "investor" who ran an elaborate Ponzi scheme. You probably have, too; his name was on the lips of a lot of people around 2008-2010, and his scheme was reported often in the news.
Madoff's fraudulent investment scheme was supposed to have been worth $65 billion, which makes this the largest fraudulent scheme ever perpetrated by an individual! In reality, however, people actually put roughly $17.5 billion of their own money into the scheme; the other $47.5 billion refers to profits that never actually existed and therefore cannot be recovered. [The taxes people paid on these fictitious profits are, of course, not recoverable either.]
Attorney Irving Picard is trying to recoup the $17 billion that investors put in. ABC News reports that, as of February 2016, he recovered just over $11 billion for investors who lost money. However, that process is inevitably difficult, as Yale accounting professor Dr. Rick Antle explains.
But do you really know what Madoff did?
