This paper will discuss the matters of Bernard “Bernie” Madoff. Are his actions to be deemed unethical, immoral, or both immoral and unethical? Madoff plead guilty to conducting his $65 billion Ponzi scheme. This in turn led him to be charged with several counts of money laundering amongst other things. His world came crumbling down around him the day after the company’s Christmas party in December of 2008. It all began in Laurelton, New York where Bernie, his brother Peter, and their older sister Sondra were raised. His parents both Ralph and Sylvia ended up being in trouble with the government on separate occasions.
His father Ralph got in trouble with the government because he owed a tax debt. “Along with three people, he owed a tax debt of $13,245. 28 (about $100,000 in today’s dollars) that caused the IRS to place a lien on the Madoff home” (Bandler and Varchaver pg. 5). His mother Sylvia was investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission along with several other broker – dealers being accused of failing to file reports of their financial condition, but in January of 1964 the case was dismissed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
It is almost like he was brought up to do what he did. Not that his parents did the exact same thing he did, but they were trying to find a quick and easy way to make as much money as possible. The only difference is that Bernie took it to the next level when he decided to play around with other peoples monies instead of just his own. Because both of his parents were involved in securities and because of this his friend Joe Kavanau said that Bernie always knew from a young age that he was going to go into the same line of work.
Bernard “Bernie” Madoff began his scheme about his investments in the early 1960’s. He got married Thanksgiving 1959 and two days later is when the Ponzi scheme began to come alive. “Two days later he found the time to fill out an SEC application to register his own self – named broker – dealer firm. He later appended a “financial statement” to the application. It consisted of seven words: “Assets: Cash on hand $200. Liabilities None. ” (Bandler and Varchaver pg. 6). From then on it was for many, many years that Mr.
Madoff and his accomplice Frank DiPascali began and continued to falsify documents to show that their client’s monies were being invested like they thought. They not only mishandled the funds of everyday people, but they had several massive international institutions whose monies they lost. There were institutions like Grupo Santander, Fortis Bank, and Union Bancaire Private and a man by the name of Carl Shapiro. The Madoff firm always claimed to have a high percentage of returns which made it look like the people and the institutions were continuously making money.
Madoff almost got caught four times over the years, but he managed to get off every time. He even found a way to calm his investors when the stock market came crashing down in 2008. He reassured them that his company was not using those companies whose stocks had collapsed. In December of 2008 Bernard “Bernie” Madoff was arrested and later charged with 11 counts of fraud, theft, money – laundering, and perjury. The Ponzi scheme is arguably the most prominent financial crime ever. Madoff made off with $65 billion of other people’s money.
Over the years investors probably gave about $20 billion dollars to Madoff. “But even that outlandish sum will never be found; it was chipped away year after year after year. That, after all, is the definition of a Ponzi scheme: Most of the cash put up by new investors went to pay the old ones” (Bandler and Varchaver pg. 17). The collapse of a Ponzi scheme means that there is no money left, but in this case there is still $65 billion dollars out there and investigators are only uncovering bits at a time.
Through Mr. Madoff’s selfish actions he has tarnished his family name and the resume’s of all of his former employees. Not to mention how destroyed the lives of his victims who are struggling to make ends meet because they lost all of their savings. Now was his acts immoral, unethical or both immoral and unethical? His acts could easily also be viewed as immoral because according to Merriam – Webster’s dictionary the definition of moral is conforming to a standard of what is right and good.
His acts were neither right nor good. Normally morals are taught to you by your parents or who ever is raising you. In this case we I can see where his morals may have been a tad bit screwed up because of the things his parents had done. While he was growing up his parents were caught up into some rather immoral things so maybe he figured it would be alright for him to do the same things, but take it too the next level. Even if his parents did corrupt his morals he had to have a lesson in school on not stealing from others.
I remember that from elementary school. Therefore a light bulb should have gone off in his head and his heart when he began to steal all of that money. His parents should have taught him that taking what does not belong to him is called stealing and it is neither right nor good. He should have known that he would not get away with stealing forever and that one day it would catch up with him. He should have stopped a long time ago and then maybe he could have held onto some of his dignity.
It still wouldn’t be right if he did stop a long time ago, but then he wouldn’t have stolen so much money from so many people. Either way it goes what he did was definitely immoral and I don’t think that there is anybody out there that would disagree. I think we all would definitely agree that what Mr. Madoff did was unethical. Ethics normally come into play in the business world and he was definitely a prominent member of the business community. He was one of the biggest investors in the investors’ community at one time. At one time everyone trusted their money to Madoff and his firm.
Stealing from clients just to make a profit is definitely unethical. According to the Merriam – Webster dictionary ethical is defined as honorable. Stealing is definitely not an honorable act. He was just being greedy and that was his down fall. According to the Merriam – Webster dictionary the definition of greedy is selfish desire beyond reason. There isn’t a better word to describe what Bernard Madoff did other than unethical and immoral. His acts are definitely both immoral and unethical because they are both very similar.
They are synonyms for each other in the dictionary. Morals deal with the rights and wrongs that your parents or guardian teach you and ethics deal with the rights and wrongs of the business community. Even if he only had one or the other of morals and ethics it should have sparked something inside of him to say that what I am doing is wrong and I need to stop. He acted as if he didn’t care about anyone but himself. Well that definitely sounds like greed to me and we’ve already established that he was greedy.
He deserved to be prosecuted and put in jail for all of his criminal acts because he was wrong no matter which way you look at the situation. Four immediate family members in his family were fighting with cancer at one point in between 2000 and 2006. He decided to donate eight figures to cancer research during this time. I don’t know if he was trying to make himself feel better by doing this, but it was still wrong. Anybody with a heart would have realized that what he was doing was wrong on so many different levels and stopped, but he kept on going and all of it eventually caught up with him.
He destroyed so many people’s lives and didn’t think anything of it. Yes the investigators are finding $75 million here and $20 million there, but I’m sure that they will never find the entire $65 billion to in order to give everybody what they are owed. This brings up another question, how do they go about deciding who gets their money back and who does not? This case has all kinds of immoral and unethical dilemmas within it. The acts of Bernard “Bernie” Madoff are hereby deemed immoral and unethical.
