It’s hard to believe that the two Madoff sons, Mark and Andrew, were not involved in their father’s ponzi-scheme. Also naive, if not illogical, is to think that it was just coincidental when everything was unraveling that the sons found out and turned Bernie in. In any event, a story in Syracuse.com today offers the best evidence yet of Madoff sons involvement in the scheme.
Dalton Givens saw the warning signs.
Madoff’s sons wined and dined Givens, then a senior vice president of Wachovia Securities, at a steakhouse in Charlotte, N.C., to try to persuade Wachovia to invest in Madoff’s hedge fund.
Givens, now retired from the firm and living in Boonville, said he took a few sniffs and didn’t like the aroma.
Among the red flags cited by Givens and others:
– Madoff ran a multibillion-dollar hedge fund, but he hired a one-man accounting firm to audit his books.
– Instead of depositing investors’ money with an independent third party, Madoff used his own firm as the custodian.
– Madoff wouldn’t share much detail about his investment strategy with potential investors, claiming he had to keep it a secret to maintain his advantage.
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