PBS Frontline - The Madoff Affair (2009)

Award-winning producers Martin Smith and Marcela Gaviria unravel the story behind what is believed to be the biggest global business fraud in history. Bernard L. Madoff and his colossal Ponzi scheme cost investors $65 billion and dominated the news for months, but few fully understood the inner workings, nor the magnitude, of this epic fraud. On December 11, 2008, Bernard L. Madoff confessed that his vaunted investment business was all “one big lie”. Overnight, Madoff became the new poster child for Wall Street gall, greed and corruption. Founded in 1960, Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities became one of the fastest growing firms on Wall Street, brokering deals with powerful hedge fund managers and feeder funds from Buenos Aires to Zurich. Speculation began to circulate, however, about how Madoff could continue to turn a steady profit during both good and bad times. The US Securities and Exchange Commission investigated Madoff for over three decades, but it was not until December 2008 that the bubble burst. With the business on the brink of collapse, Madoff admitted to his sons, both of whom were employed by the firm, that the company was operating a giant Ponzi scheme, relying on new investments to deliver imaginary returns on non-existent trades. Madoff was immediately arrested and three months later pleaded guilty to charges of fraud, money laundering and perjury. In June 2009, he was sentenced to 150 years imprisonment. Featuring contributions from Madoff's victims as well as respected bankers and financiers across two continents, this report asks how one of the most notorious fraudsters in history managed to get away with so much for so long.

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