GREED MONSTER

Bernie Madoff—the dark side of investing.
Image credit: Netflix Movies

 How heavily invested are you? I mean, money-wise. It's a volatile marketplace, analysts say, so be careful. Your hard-earned money may turn to mush. 

I'm no expert, so don't take my word for it. But learn a lesson or two from those who've been baited into placing their money in ghost investments, and lost. 

Smooth operators, these sweet-talkers, promising you sky-high returns.

Case in point: Bernie Madoff—one of the founders of Nasdaq, once hailed as a Wall Street investment expert, a do-gooder who supported numerous charities—conned investors big-time. 

Netflix's "Madoff, the Monster of Wall Street," detailed his Ponzi-style "fund management" as having defrauded victims of approximately $65 billion. 

Investor.gov defines Ponzi as an investment fraud which pays existing investors with funds collected from new investors. Simply, your money never really gets invested. It just goes to the swindler's bank account—money merely juggled between his clients’ funds. 

A promise of over-the-top-earnings—that’s the bait. So clients' invest more, because initially, they’re really getting big returns. 

Until the well runs dry. 

“Ponzi” derives its name from Charles Ponzi, an Italian swindler and con artist who in the 1920s lured US and Canadian investors to invest with him by promising 50% profit within 45 days (per Wikipedia). 

1 Timothy 6:10 "The love of money is the root of all evil." 

Proverbs 23:5a "Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone..." 

It may have been a slow-mo riches-to-prison spiral for Madoff, yet consider the sad trail of tragedies which befell him, his family and his investors. 

He was sentenced to 150 years in prison. (Madoff passed away in 2021.) Five of his former employees were also indicted. 

His son Mark committed suicide, followed by the death of his brother, Andrew, who succumbed to lymphoma. They both worked for their father, but they were unaware of his shenanigans because the dark side of the business happened on another floor of the building where they were off limits. They notified the authorities once they discovered their father’s criminal activity. 

Madoff’s wife remained homeless after all their properties were confiscated. 

And his investors? They periodically stormed the courts and the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) for their money back. Some were very old retirees who lost not only their hard-earned earnings but their properties as well. 

A fund manager representing smaller investors committed suicide. 

Yet how stupid is it! That anyone would knowingly inflict harm on the  unsuspecting, break the law, and expect his corruption to be undiscovered. 

The whistle-blower—bane of fraudsters.
Image credit: Netflix Movies

Yes, a whistle blower did Madoff in. Within minutes of running Madoff’s numbers, financial analyst Harry Markopolos discovered the mathematical impossibility of the former’s incredible no-loss financial uptrend. He persisted in banging at the doors of the SEC in spite of their dismissiveness. It helped too that the 2008 US financial crisis pushed up-front the country’s fractured investment system, 

Hear the Lord’s Word against fraudsters: Micah 2:1,3 “Woe to those who plan iniquity, who defraud people of their homes, rob them of their inheritance... I am planning disaster against this people… You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a time of calamity.”

Every wrongdoing will be exposed, even shame its perpetrators! 

How not to be entangled with con artists? Proverbs 14:7

“Escape quickly from the company of fools…” 

Don’t be greedy. Ecclesiastes 5:10 “Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income…” 

It’s hard to come off a vicious cycle of greed. But with God, nothing is impossible.