Woman lost 3.8 million (everything) with Madoff

This is very sad. In general I feel the same way about people losing money from investments as I would about somebody who starts a business that fails. It's regrettable but that's the game.

However, madoff's investors are victims of crime. It's easy to say buyer beware but these weren't losses caused by the market or poor investments. Maybe they should have paid more attention, but people are conditioned that they don't need to worry about fraud, snake oil salesmen or whatnot because the government is watching over everything. 'Course this isn't always so.
 
What kind souls on this board. Talk about embarrassments to the human race.

The woman was diagnosed with an incurable degenerative disease, and while still in the obvious emotional and psychological pain associated with such a diagnosis, trusted a licensed and allegedly knowledgeable broker to help maintain the money she had worked so hard for, so she should take care of herself and her family.

A disabled woman and her broker were duped by a con man. It is a sad story.
 
Quote from RobtF:

Saved $2 Million, impressive...

Is the SEC like a lighthose?
...Elisofon likened the case to a 1955 court decision in which the government was successfully sued for failing to maintain a lighthouse. In the case, Indian Towing Co. v. the United States, the company was awarded damages after its barge ran aground on an island where the Coast Guard had a lighthouse. The light, at the time, was broken.
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If that were true. Every University, foundation, nonprofit, pension fund, and personal retirement account deserves an 50% restitution award, as the SEC has not overseen the retirement fund industry and their buy and hold mantra. Everyone who looks at the history of the stock market can see that advice spells disaster, but the SEC has done nothing to curb that practice. If anything they keep on endorsing it. Their lights are out to the general public. If these people deserve to sue so does every mom and pop who was led to the slaughter with the long term horizon retirement funds that the general retiree has access to.

Can't make everybody whole again.

Just make some people ask questions and not be caught buy the same trap next time.
 
This lady is no better (or worse) than the average human being who purchased a house at the peak of the real estate boom and lost his/her job. While there is some randomness (genetics and environment) in being infected with such a disease, lifestyle ultimately determines how fast you get there. It's a horrible case of 'luck.' I don't wish this upon anyone.

Even worse stories will appear in the headlines, as, this is only the beginning of the unraveling of the Madoff Scandal. The sad reality is that the people involved have all been infected by the absolute worst disease there is and that is of blood-sucking attorneys.
 
Quote from smilingsynic:

What kind souls on this board. Talk about embarrassments to the human race.

The woman was diagnosed with an incurable degenerative disease, and while still in the obvious emotional and psychological pain associated with such a diagnosis, trusted a licensed and allegedly knowledgeable broker to help maintain the money she had worked so hard for, so she should take care of herself and her family.

A disabled woman and her broker were duped by a con man. It is a sad story.
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What kind of "licensed and allegedly knowledgeable broker" puts 100% of their clients money into one single idea?

Isn't diversification basically Investing 101?

At the end of the day, it comes down to greed. Nobody cared as long as they were making 12% a year, but now everyone wants their money back for being defrauded (as if deep down they didn't know something was fishy).
 
Quote from Anaconda:

She is a fool, that is all. And a fool and his/her money are soon parted.

Anyone who knowingly invested in Madoff deserves little pity. It's not a big revelation or shock that his whole operation was a Ponzi scheme. Even prior to the 2005 report, it has been suspected that he was lying.
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At bottom, she is a victim of fraud. The whole point of fraud is to deceive. And apparently Madoff's fraudulent activities were good enough to get by for years.

He claimed to have a safe investment for others to invest in.

I wonder what you would say if madoff was ripping people off by selling bunk CDs.
 
If the Madoff investors get their money back, then shouldn't all the investors in SAY get their money back too?

Both groups of investors were victims of fraud.

Edit-- In no way do I support anyone getting taxpayer money given to them because they made the wrong investing decisions, whether by fraud or just bad stockpicking. They chose to invest with Madoff. Ten minutes of DD and common sense would have tipped you off that something wasn't right, and his returns were impossibly smooth no matter what the markets were doing.
 
Quote from smilingsynic:

What kind souls on this board. Talk about embarrassments to the human race.

The woman was diagnosed with an incurable degenerative disease, and while still in the obvious emotional and psychological pain associated with such a diagnosis, trusted a licensed and allegedly knowledgeable broker to help maintain the money she had worked so hard for, so she should take care of herself and her family.

A disabled woman and her broker were duped by a con man. It is a sad story.
More...

Don't do that crap. They trot out the saddest story they can find so people like you can make reasonable people sound like jerks. This should have constituted a 5% loss to this woman. Period. She shot the moon for risk free income and it destroyed her.

My parents and one brother were being told they were idiots when I was getting them out of the stock market in 2007-8. Parents near 70, 90% exposure to stock market, put there buy licensed professionals. Who would have put them right. Nothing illegal about what would have happened to them if they were still in that position. It would be sad and would have made their lives that much harder. Doesn't change the responsibility for the losses. Just like this poor woman.

JIM
 
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