Was Madoff alone to blame Dear readers
it would appear that another alleged ********* was uncovered and thousand of suckers discovered, namely i am of the opinion that Mr Madoff as intelligent as he is could not pull this of on his own, there would have to be many accomplices for (alleged) fraud of this this magnitude to be affected.

Firstly
which fund manager and or fund it self guarantees the returns or even the original amount invested, not one, it is all speculative investments not much different then shares or investment in the stock market.

Many investors have lost lot of money on value of share all over the world, in particular in Michael Milken investments better known as "junk bonds" , difference between Milkens,Madoff's ,stock brokers and general funds and their managers is insignificant.
Why
because it is all speculative investment and it should be treated as such, savings account holders in the banks are and would be innocent victims by losing their savings, all the other investors in all the funds and in particular Madoff investment are only greed orientated speculators.
Having said this, it does not justify Mr Madoff wrong doing (if any) i am merely pointing out that it takes more then one to play tango, investors are just to blame as Mr Madoff if not more.
Why
because they were looking for high returns without due diligence and research in to the fund they were investing in, high returns certainly brings high risk any investor large or small knows this, Madoff must have done something right all these years and he must have paid investors their 10-18% pa did he not?

Question is
how many investors have been collecting these high returns and for how long, if you take say investor that was being paid 12% average over the last 10 years while the Government bonds (if you can call them secure investment) and savings account was paying 3-5% p.a what is their loss today ?
If Madoff investors get 20cents in $ some of them will still be way ahead then if their money was in the bank, keeping in mind that banks are shaky investment right now.
Note, this only applies to long term investors with Madoff, the ones that have come last they have huge loss (all of it less 20% if and when they get it)

Criminal charges
this aspect of this case is of interest to me the most, why, what is Madoff been charged with, fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud (prosecutor needs accomplices) how much of the money is missing and how much is invested in up to yesterday blue chip AIG 's of the world.

It is alleged that Madoff's sons have reported him to the authorities after he allegedly admitted to them what he had done, if i was the prosecutor i would first look for the motives for sons to report their 70 year old father (who made them very rich by the way) unless it was part of elaborate clever manipulative trick to get the authorities away from them self's.

According to the reports Mr Madoff has send gold watches and other valuables to his relative including his sons (that have reported him), would any wise man smart enough for this scheme be so naive, no i do not think that is possible.This gesture of reporting their farther for the gifts is just another form of confirmation that they are part of the scam, it would appear that this act to report their father is joint family decission once again master at work (damage control).

It is my humble opinion that prosecutor in this case (as it is usually) is not up to speed with the workings of funds like Madoff and Madoff's attorneys will have upper hand at all times.
Note;
it is very important to read the terms and conditions of investing in Madoff funds, i am certain that in fine print there are no guarantees just like in Vegas or Atlantic city, just because investors trusted Mr Madoff does not mean that he intended to defraud them at the time when he took their money, this is what the prosecutor needs to prove in order to secure criminal conviction.
For this to happen prosecutor would have to be an ex fund manager or at least Wall st. exec. to understand the game before he can go hunting, knowing who (in most instances) gets to be a prosecutor i feel that Mr Medoff's skills will once again prevail in negotiating a plea that suits him.

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