5. Reading guide
As the Madoff investment scandal is the biggest of it’s kind in financial history, there
is extensive information about the incident. We recommend watching the
documentary film “Chasing Madoff”, where Markopolos and his colleagues narrate
and discuss the fraud. Accompanying this, Markopolos’ 21-page-memo filed to the
SEC in 2005 explains the fraud mechanisms three years before Madoff’s arrest.
News articles worth leading include our references, most notably “The Madoff Case:
A Timeline” ([1]), for an overview of the fraud and how it progressed and “Family
filled posts at industry groups” ([9, 10, 11, 12]) for further discussion regarding
Madoff ties to Washington regulators. (Note that the article can be locked behind a
pay wall depending on how many times you access it).
Furthermore, for those who do not entirely grasp the concept of a Ponzi Scheme and
disregarding the specific Madoff case, the popular culture show “Two and a half
men” shows a simple fraud carried out by character “Alan” in the episode “That Darn
Priest”. It is obviously blended in with situational comedy, however the episode does
a good and humoristic job of illustrating the most simple technique for a Ponzi
scheme by bankrolling “returns” with new investments