Case - Bernie Madoff: Just Stay Away from the Seventeenth Floor
Discussion Questions
1. Mr. Markopolos was dismissed by his bosses and friends even as he provided a list of twenty-eight red flags. What do we learn from his experience about raising questions on the accounting and returns of companies? What can we learn about the reception whistleblowers receive?
Did the market, regulators, and investors not want to raise questions because of the steady returns Madoff provided? What role does a questioning attitude play in preventing company collapses?
2. Should investors have suspected the continuing higher levels of returns that never faltered?
3. The Madoff empire could not have lasted as long as it did without complicity from employees. Mr. Madoff's second-in-command, Frank DiPascali, who entered a guilty plea, told the federal judge,
I'm standing here to say that from the early 1990s until December 2008, I helped Bernie Madoff and other people carry out a fraud. I knew no trades were happening. I knew what I was doing was criminal. But I did it anyway.
Mr. DiPascali's compensation was $2 million per year. He had not completed college at the time Mr. Madoff hired him in the early years of the firm. What might have helped Mr. DiPascali resist the temptation to participate in the fraud?
Attachment:- Case.rar