Let’s Recap: Another Madoff

Hedge-fund managers Paul Greenwood and Stephen Walsh were arrested this week.  The pony-collecting, teddy-bear treasuring scalliwags stand accused of pilfering $553 million from their investment clients.  Those clients included Carnegie-Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, and the Iowa Public Employees and Sacramento County Employees Retirement Systems.  These institutions and funds were hornswoggled by a couple of fellow who fit the pattern, the Madoff pattern.  What are its elements?  Well, for one, the fund outperformed Standard & Poor’s 500 index for more than 10 years.  If it sounds too good to be true . . . Then you have the lavish spending, weird even by Robin Leach standards.  An $81,000 teddy bear collection?$3 million on a home for an ex-wife? Ponies galore at $100,000 a pop?  And then there are the unanswered questions:  How exactly are you fellows doing this?  Oh, it’s complicated.  Oh, he wrote his dissertation on stock-portfolio theory.  The answers are elusive and carry that arrogance of, “You probably wouldn’t understand it all, but trust us.”  From Enron to those pushing CDOs, we have heard that “we is sophisticated” con too many times.

So far, we have Madoff at $50 billion, Stanford at $8 billion, Marc Dreier at $400 million, and now WG Trading at well, we’re not sure because as late a february 2, WG was still raking in funds from educational institutions.  The indictment, with its charges that the two  looted that $553 million means there must have been a chunk of funds recruited.  And the pattern was the same:  lots of spending, lots of mystery, and lots of consistently high returns.  The three components that enable the next Ponzi/Madoff artists to pull the con again.  There is always a rogue in waiting, but we can head them off at the pass, that pass where spending and credibility meet.

About mmjdiary

Professor Marianne Jennings is an emeritus professor of legal and ethical studies from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, retiring in 2011 after 35 years of teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in ethics and the legal environment of business. During her tenure at ASU, she served as director of the Joan and David Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics from 1995-1999. In 2006, she was appointed faculty director for the W.P. Carey Executive MBA Program. She has done consulting work for businesses and professional groups including AICPA, Boeing, Dial Corporation, Edward Jones, Mattel, Motorola, CFA Institute, Southern California Edison, the Institute of Internal Auditors, AIMR, DuPont, AES, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Motorola, Hy-Vee Foods, IBM, Bell Helicopter, Amgen, Raytheon, and VIAD. The sixth edition of her textbook, Case Studies in Business Ethics, was published in February 2011. The ninth edition of her textbook, Business: lts Legal, Ethical and Global Environment was published in January 2011. The 23rd edition of her book, Business Law: Principles and Cases, will be published in January 2013. The tenth edition of her book, Real Estate Law, will also be published in January 2013. Her book, A Business Tale: A Story of Ethics, Choices, Success, and a Very Large Rabbit, a fable about business ethics, was chosen by Library Journal in 2004 as its business book of the year. A Business Tale was also a finalist for two other literary awards for 2004. In 2000 her book on corporate governance was published by the New York Times MBA Pocket Series. Her book on long-term success, Building a Business Through Good Times and Bad: Lessons from Fifteen Companies, Each With a Century of Dividends, was published in October 2002 and has been used by Booz, Allen, Hamilton for its work on business longevity. Her latest book, The Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse was published by St. Martin’s Press in July 2006 and has been a finalist for two book awards. Her weekly columns are syndicated around the country, and her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, Washington Post, and the Reader's Digest. A collection of her essays, Nobody Fixes Real Carrot Sticks Anymore, first published in 1994 is still being published. She has been a commentator on business issues on All Things Considered for National Public Radio. She has served on four boards of directors, including Arizona Public Service (1987-2000), Zealous Capital Corporation, and the Center for Children with Chronic Illness and Disability at the University of Minnesota. She was appointed to the board of advisors for the Institute of Nuclear Power Operators in 2004 and served on the board of trustees for Think Arizona, a public policy think tank. She has appeared on CNBC, CBS This Morning, the Today Show, and CBS Evening News. In 2010 she was named one of the Top 100 Thought Leaders in Business Ethics by Trust Across America. Her books have been translated into four different languages. She received the British Emerald award for authoring one of their top 50 articles in management publications, chosen from over 15,000 articles. Personal: Married since 1976 to Terry H. Jennings, Maricopa County Attorney’s Office Deputy County Attorney; five children: Sarah, Sam, and John, and the late Claire and Hannah Jennings.
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