Bernie Madoff: Banks ' Had To Know' Of Fraud (451 hits)
More than two years have passed since Bernard Madoff was arrested for a massive Ponzi scheme which spanned 16 years and consumed roughly $20 billion in lost cash and nearly $65 billion in paper wealth, and the search for who was complicit is still heating up. ... He spoke with great intensity and fluency about his dealings with various banks and hedge funds, pointing to their "willful blindness" and their failure to examine discrepancies between his regulatory filings and other information available to them. "They had to know," Mr. Madoff said. "But the attitude was sort of, 'If you're doing something wrong, we don't want to know.' "
Previously, Madoff claimed that he essentially worked alone. He still maintains that his family was innocent. The only people formally charged in connection with the scheme are Madoff's former auditor and seven members of his staff. Madoff did not name names or specific institutions, but Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee charged with recovering assets for Madoff's swindled victims is focusing in on JPMorgan, which served for decades as Madoff's primary banker.
On February 3, Picard accused JP Morgan of having significant doubts about Madoff but silently acquiescing in his fraud. JP Morgan shot back, demanding a jury trial. Reuters reports: The second-largest U.S. bank said court-appointed trustee Irving Picard is exceeding his power by suing in bankruptcy court, where a judge rather than a jury would decide the case. Story continues below
