Abstract:

For many years Bernie Madoff delivered consistently high returns with amaz- ingly low volatility. In December 2008 his operation was exposed as a giant Ponzi scheme. It is estimated that the recorded value of his funds then was over sixty four billion dollars. Of course there were no assets backing these numbers. The Madoff scandal raises many questions. How did he perpetrate such a massive fraud and fool so many people for so long? Why did regula- tion and due diligence fail? Are there any simple tests that could have been used to check if his alleged returns were too good to be true? Proceedings are currently under way to recover some of the funds lost by his investors. This talk will discuss these and other issues.