Renaissance also doubted Madoff could be engaged in fraud because he operated through highly regulated brokerage accounts, stating:
[B]ecause of the nature of the fact that these were brokerage statements, and he had a big broker dealer business and big market-maker and à ‚¬" you just assume that someone was paying attention to make sure that there was something on the other side of the trade. " I never, as the manager, entertained the thought that it was truly fraudulent. And it again was because " it would have been so easy to prove that it was fraud if it was just managed accounts that were set up. It would have been so à ‚¬" again, forgive me here, but you know, it would have been pretty straightforward. We felt that he was sufficiently in the eye of the regulators that it was just hard for us to envision that that was the case.
Simons Testimony Tr. at pgs. 28, 39-40.
Simons further explained that one reason they did not report their suspicions to the Commission directly was that they felt all of the information they were using in their analysis was readily available to the Commission.
So there you have it. Some of the greatest and most sophisticated investors in the world invested with Madoff, and continued to do so despite serious suspicions that something might be wrong there (suspicions discussed from pp. 145-161 of Kotz's report), because the SEC had checked out Madoff, had access to the pertinent information, and had given Madoff a clean bill of health, a motivating factor for Renaissance Technologies which is discussed at several places in Kotz's report.
When even Renaissance Technologies left money with Madoff because of the SEC, and did so despite extensive and highly sophisticated suspicions (which you really should read about in Kotz's report), it is truly indecent -- it is absolutely vicious -- for people (like Joe Nocera, his investment guru buddy Jim Hedges, and lots of ignoramuses who write the kind of utter crap one often finds in comments on the internet) to blame the innocent, small fry victims for investing with Madoff; it is indecent and vicious to blame people who, unlike Renaissance, knew nothing that excited suspicion.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
