Financial Fraud Can Happen to Anyone
In 2008 it was discovered that Bernard Madoff, famed financial investor, had scammed clients out of approximately $65 billion over 20 years. His victims included people from all walks of life–from politics, to Hollywood luminaries.
The list even includes Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and his Foundation for Humanity. Madoff stole from many in his Jewish community, not all of them wealthy.
He fooled investors, big and small, with claims of exclusivity and consistently positive returns. A year later in 2009, a seemingly endless string of similar scams began to surface.
Although the most sensationalized scandals were large-scale, many scams also occurred in small communities across America. They may not have made the papers, but these small scale con artists still cheated their victims out of every last penny.
No matter what regulators may devise, there will always be con artists on both big and small scales. They have existed long …
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