Madoff Essay

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BERNARD MADOFF CASE STUDY What are the ethical issues involved in the Madoff case? The Bernard Madoff case is fraught with numerous ethical issues. This case has been classified as the largest swindle in our nation’s history. Madoff is a typical example of someone who had a lack of respect for his profession as well as a lack and pure disregard for the personal relationships that he built over the years. These same individuals trusted and respected Bernard Madoff and yet he showed less than the mutual respect a professional investor should show toward his clients. Family members were not immune to his scheme. In fact, other family members were encouraged to invest and also bring in new investors into the fold of his deliberate hoax of profiting off of the rich and unassuming. Madoff showed that he lacked care and empathy for his clients, clearly a pure dereliction of duty, to provide the best information and protect investor’s financial investments. There were also unethical issues involving the entity that was supposed to secure and watch over those that are investing our money. That entity, known as the Securities and Exchange Commission, failed to properly investigate certain claims that were made against Madoff long before this scheme broke wide open. The SEC was warned numerous times about the inconsistent information from Bernie Madoff. Ethical misconduct within this case has made more investors aware of what is needed besides forking over large sums of money and charitable contributions to someone who claims they are doing the work of the people. Investors now know that it is also their job to challenge and be more “in tune” to what their money is doing and how their money is working. This not only suggest that people need to start reading the monthly statements, but to also invite questions about what is going on with their finances, to be much more

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