Quote from Cutten:
Stealing people's life savings, if they are substantial, is worse than ...
These people were investors first. Investors hoping for unrealistically high returns. So in that sense, they were really speculators. It didn't work out. Sure this guy is a crook, but the folks who are out the capital have to take some responsibility too. It's called greed - the reason they didn't put the capital in T-Bills.
And what irony, the only trades that I saw were naked short selling (or buying Puts ) of DNDN. DNDN is trying to find a cure for cancer, and all these charities are sending their money to Madoff. And he is making money hand over fist shorting DNDN. Can't make this stuff up.
Coincidentally, I was long 5K shares of DNDN when it collapsed. Big hickey for me. I rode it out, doubled down at $5.00. Still Long. Now I up pretty big, 10K shares. You pays your money, takes your chances.