From “Front & Center”, by Bud Burrell
I predicted that the original estimates of $50 Billion would be upped as investigators got into the Madoff accounts. Yesterday, they announced that the amount of the losses was increased to $65 Billion, and I would bet the number goes higher before this is over.
The question becomes why wasn’t the number accurate to start with? Monday, following the 60 Minutes Redux piece covering Harry Markopolos’ ground breaking work on Madoff, the SEC IG went into take a 3 hour statement from Madoff, presumably on who at the SEC rejected his original findings presented no fewer than 5 times formally, and how they could justify ignoring his analytical work.
I would bet that the SEC IG will again find specific failures on the part of the SEC staff, which findings they will reject as being without foundation. The SEC IG is clearly unarmed for this battle, and he needs to bring in the DOJ and the FBI. If that doesn’t happen, the SEC must be broken up, along with its close associate, FINRA. [entire post]