Bernard Madoff Essay

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He played the Ponzi game better than any other before him. He could have even made it to his grave before anyone caught on to the scheme if the economy hadn’t had the last laugh. He played the people around him and made sure to keep the regulators close to him. In the beginning he gained peoples trust by running an honest business and then the scheme began. His name is Bernard Madoff and he ran the world’s biggest ponzi scheme ever. According to Biography.com Bernard Madoff was born in the year 1938 in New York City. He was the son of Polish immigrants Ralph and Sylvia Madoff. He had a younger brother (Peter) and an older sister (Sondra). His father was a plumber and later became involved in finance in the 1950s. His mother registered as a broker dealer in the 1960s and had a company named Gibraltar Securities. Even though Bernie was raised by parents who had dealings with the financial world he showed no interest. Bernie graduated from high school in 1956 and went to the University of Alabama. After attending for one year he transferred to Hofstra University. In 1959 he married his high school sweetheart Ruth Alpern and graduated from Hofstra University with a degree in political science. In an article written by James Bandler and Nicholas Varchaver one of Bernie’s classmates Heiberger stated “He was a very aggressive kind of kid that wanted to get ahead in life.” He started a side business as a teenager installing sprinkler systems and worked as a lifeguard. According to his classmate Heiberger, “He was a regular guy who was always hustling.” Apparently he saved his earnings, because in 1960 he decided to start his own firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLC, with $5,000.00 that he had saved from his summer job as a lifeguard and the money he made on the side installing sprinkler systems. The article The Talented Mr. Madoff

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