If you have a spare 30 minutes, you might enjoy reading the Kotz report on the SEC investigations into Bernie Madoff.
Then again, it might you might find it a little disturbing that SEC investigators could have been so easily put off their investigations, and equally that their bosses seemed so reluctant to go after Madoff even after several plausible complaints. The thought crossed my mind that perhaps US firms constantly make complaints about their rivals and it is all part of the business, but the accusations against Madoff seemed so clear and plausible and the fact that no checks that were made on whether Madoff was trading with third parties in the volumes he claimed, make it clear that the whole episode was a disaster.
The best bit comes when Madoff is interviewed by SEC inspectors and tries the "Do you know who I am" line?
When Madoff told the inspectors he was on the shortlist to be the next SEC Chairman, sadly they didn't respond that Joseph Kennedy had been on the same list in the 1940's, but that didn't mean he was clean either.
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