Mr. Robot

Cheesy

Yes. There were likely investors who had no issues with it as long as they got out before it all crashed.

In fact, part of the resistance to exposing Madoff was that investors were making returns. (Even though those returns were money stolen from other investors).

By all appearances, when you invested with Madoff you were putting your money with a trusted investment firm. Madoff was a trusted and respected leader in that space.

And for those people who invested and received good returns with Madoff, there actually wasn't a problem.

The issue with a Ponzi scheme is at some point it's going to crash, and that's what happened around 2008 and it left Madoff with a $7 billion hole in his balance sheet (and life in prison).

I attended a speech by Harry Markopolos. This man figured out that Madoff was a fraud well before anyone else, but no one would believe him.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Markopolos#:~:text=In%202010%2C%20Markopolos's%20book%20on,the%20larger%20companies%20it%20supervised.

Great summary.

Madoff, of course, enhanced the performance of his hedge fund by making it a Ponzi scheme.

https://newrepublic.com/article/162053/bernie-madoff-dead-hedge-fund-regulation

Would be an Amish Paradise

https://youtu.be/lOfZLb33uCg

A former classmate with no criminal record bought a gun, committed armed robbery and was arrested and convicted.

Even though this was his first offense, it was a felony with a firearm which meant a mandatory five year prison sentence.