Fraud Expert Testifies At Madoff SEC Hearing Part 2

Boston University law professor Tamar Frankel testified as a fraud expert before Congress Jan. 5 in the first SEC hearing regarding Bernard Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme. "Some [money] will be recovered no doubt. The question is how much, and from whom,” she said. BU journalism professor Mitchell Zuckoff, author of the biography Ponzi’s Scheme: The True Story Of A Financial Legend, said Madoff built up a reputation as a brilliant investor. “They thought they were getting the great opportunity of a lifetime investing in him,” he said.  DailyFreePress.com also writes:

The SEC’s failure to catch Madoff’s alleged scheme earlier is under fire, but it is not clear whether all blame should be laid on the SEC, Frankel said However, Zuckoff said he has no doubt the SEC failed.

“There is no question in my mind the Securities and Exchange Commission did not do its job,” Zuckoff said. Madoff’s prominent position as former Nasdaq chairman made a thorough investigation of his actions difficult, Frankel said.  “You don’t take a person like that and put him under the light and interrogate him,” she said. “So he was questioned with kid gloves.”