Two little blurbs:
1) Dubyah’s
Administration prosecuted more financial criminals per year than Obama’s,
and
2) additional charges were filed against five long-time Madoff employees accused of cooking the books.
2) additional charges were filed against five long-time Madoff employees accused of cooking the books.
Two
of the most important stories of our time, and there were no blaring headlines,
at least not down here. We had to
stumble upon them by chance. News that
Peter Madoff, Bernie’s brother, got convicted four days ago for his role in the
family Ponzi scheme didn’t even reach us at all. Googling something else, that tidbit happened
to catch our eye.
The
Director of Operations at Madoff’s Manhattan offices manipulated the general
ledger, financial statements, and stock record, and falsified documents
relating to the Crime Lord’s individual tax returns, all to bamboozle auditors,
according to the Feds. Computer
programmers wrote algorithms to alter account names, the number of shares, and
transaction numbers, the G-men claim.
Crimebusters
now charge that the conspiracy began as far back as the early 70’s, not 1992 as
originally dated. “Each of the
defendants,” one FBI official noted, “in his or her way allegedly played a key
role in designing, building, or maintaining the house of cards. The habitual doctoring of books and records,
the fictitious trades, the phantom accounts, were the core of the charade.”
Peter
went down, in part, for the criminal use of colored pencils. (Felonious creating the false impression that
you’re filling out documents on different days). The G-men didn’t say whether or not he
shared.
Bernie
got 150 years. His release date is in
2139. Peter is in for 10. Ruth, Bernie’s wife, and their youngest son,
Andrew, haven’t been charged with anything.
Bernie’s son, Mark, committed suicide, and his wife, Stephanie, legally
changed her name.
