Bernard Lawrence is an American convicted of fraud and a former stockbroker, investment advisor, and financier.

Madoff founded the Wall Street firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC in 1960, and was its chairman until his arrest on December 11, 2008. The firm was one of the top market maker businesses on Wall Street, which bypassed "specialist" firms by directly executing orders over the counter from retail brokers. He employed at the firm his brother Peter, as Senior Managing Director and Chief Compliance Officer; Peter's daughter Shana Madoff, as the firm's rules and compliance officer and attorney; and his sons Andrew and Mark. On December 10, 2008, Madoff's sons told authorities that their father had confessed to them that the asset management unit of his firm was a massive Ponzi scheme, and quoted him as describing it as "one big lie". The following day, FBI agents arrested Madoff and charged him with one count of securities fraud. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had previously conducted investigations into Madoff's business practices, but had not uncovered the massive fraud. On March 12, 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies and admitted to turning his wealth management business into a massive Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of investors of billions of dollars. Madoff said he began the Ponzi scheme in the early 1990s. However, federal investigators believe the fraud began as early as the mid-1980s and may have begun as far back as the 1970s, and those charged with recovering the missing money believe the investment operation may never have been legitimate. The amount missing from client accounts, including fabricated gains, was almost $65 billion. The court-appointed trustee estimated actual losses to investors of $18 billion. On June 29, 2009, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum allowed.

Madoff Ponzi scheme Bernard Madoff took his investors for $65 billion over the course of nearly two decades. His list of victims includes billionaires, celebrities, individual investors, banks, and charities. His scheme was revealed when he confessed in March 2009, when he pleading guilty to the charges against him, and was then sentenced to 150 years in prison. Madoff was successful for so long because he was respected, well-established and esteemed financial expert. He was having a reputation for his role in the foundation of the NASDAQ stock exchange. Additionally he was simultaneously running a legitimate business and earned his investors' trust because he didn't tempt investors with unbelievable returns. Also to an imagination no one paid any attention to the telltale signals of Madoffs scheme. Investors were made to believe they were selected and privilege to be part of his investment group. Membership was more of a private club, as only the invited could invest. Many investors were friends with each other and with Madoff. Another obvious sign to investor should have been Madoffs unwillingness to describe his strategy. When prospective clients asked about details of his strategy or investment groups results the invitation to invest was withdrawn. Aside of the secrecy and strategy disclosure Madoff also had his company issue customer statements. He was manipulating statements to reflect positive returns regardless of market environments. Perhaps if investors would have had an independent objective advisor to act in their best interest, understanding the investment strategy, and be able to explain it to investors this case would not have escalated to this extent. From ethical perspective, this is an example of white collar crime. White collar crimes create victims by establishing trust and respectability. As in this case, victims of white collar crime are trusting clients who believed there were many checks and balances that certified the Madoff investment operation as legitimate. Madoff appears to be the classic white collar criminal. He was educated and experienced individual in a position of power, trust,

respectability who abused his trust for personal gains. From the inception of his investment business, he knew that he was operating a Ponzi scheme and defrauding his clients. The only way to prevent the white collar crime is to have internal controls and compliance standards that detect misconduct. In the Madoff case there was the opportunity to deceive others without effective audits or transparency and an understanding of the true nature of his operations. As a result of this case, individual investors, institution, and hopefully regulators will exert more diligence in demanding transparency and honesty from those who manage investments.