Ponzi schemes, fraud and other misdeeds

Madoff, Stanford, Dreier, the N.Y. pension scandal ... welcome to the recession rogues gallery. Read on for Deal coverage of alleged fraud and wrongdoing since the Madoff story blew open in December.

The latest: Nov. 3: Today in investment fraud: Stanford un-knighted: That's right. Today in investment fraud, Sir Allen Stanford, who allegedly perpetrated a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, is to be stripped of his knighthood. - Sara Behunek

Nov. 3: More tales of ineptitude about the SEC: "I don't think we should worry about Bernie finding out to whom we speak ... we are not telling anybody that we have found anything improper (except for his lies to us, of course)."

That is an excerpt from an e-mail one Securities and Exchange Commission investigator wrote May 16, 2006, and part of hundreds of documents released Friday by the SEC. - Sara Behunek

Nov. 2: Madoff surprised he was not caught sooner: It appears that no one was more surprised by the Securities and Exchange Commission's inability to uncover his fraud than convicted Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff himself. In a jailhouse interview released late Friday by H. David Kotz, the SEC's inspector general, Madoff waxed lyrical about the bumbling and bungling of the agency's inspectors and says he was "astonished" that no one caught him earlier. - Donna Block

Oct. 16: Hedge fund giant charged with insider trading: Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam and his cohorts allegedly made $20 million by trading on information in the stocks of several companies including Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE:AMD), Clearwire Corp. (NASDAQ: CLWR) and Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM). - Donna Block

Oct. 12: Snipes gets clipped -- again: When it comes to managing his money, actor Wesley Snipes, best known for his role as vampire hunter "Blade," can't seem to get it right. First he botched his income taxes, and now he's caught up in a Ponzi scheme. - Donna Block

Oct. 12: Bear Stearns hedgies trial begins Tuesday: Bear Stearns Cos. hedge fund managers Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin are headed to the courtroom Tuesday. A jury will finally decide if the two hedge fund managers are scapegoats or criminals, and the trial could set a precedent for how the government will pursue other  legal proceedings involving Wall Street executives. - Maria Woehr

Oct. 2: Madoff trustee wants investor to return $7.2B: Irving Picard wants Bernard Madoff investor Jeffrey Picower to return the $7.2 billion in profits he earned from his Madoff account over 30 years. Picower was the biggest beneficiary of Madoff's $65 billion scam, Picard said in court papers filed on Thursday. - Donna Block

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Oct. 2: Dreier airs his dirty laundry: Disgraced attorney Marc Dreier has officially started his comeback -- or at least the public relations blitz designed to help his comeback has begun. The former attorney and convicted Ponzi schemer gave his first interview since his June sentencing, a tell-all account in Vanity Fair entitled Marc Dreier's Crime of Destiny. The article is bent on making sense of just how Dreier, 59, pulled off a $380 million fraud for four years. - Carolyn Okomo

Sept. 28: Picard: Could be bankruptcy for Madoff clan: The court-appointed trustee in the Bernard L. Madoff case, Irving Picard, will file suit this week against Madoff's sons Mark and Andrew, his brother Peter and niece Shana for negligence and breach of fiduciary duty in their roles at the company -- a development that comes as little surprise in the ongoing saga. - Sara Behunek

Sept. 24: SEC nabs insider trader in Dell-Perot deal: Stupid is as stupid does. With all the high-tech and extensive monitoring systems the stock exchanges use to keep an eye on large numbers of transactions each day, searching for trades that are out of the ordinary is no biggie. And, when there is a huge M&A transaction like Dell Inc.'s (NASDAQ:DELL) $3.9 billion takeover of Perot Systems Corp. (NYSE:PER), any anomaly will sound an alarm. - Donna Block

Sept. 22: RBC Capital's dating disaster: As far as dating disasters go, this one takes the cake. Fired for having a personal relationship with an alleged crook, a former trader at RBC Capital Markets is now suing her former boss for gender discrimination. - Donna Block

Sept. 16: Fraudster Stanford gets public defender: Jailed Ponzi schemer and cricket enthusiast R. Allen Stanford wanted a high-priced attorney to defend him; instead, he's getting a public defender. - Donna Block

Sept. 15: Many profited from Madoff's Ponzi scheme: rin Arvedlund's "Too Good to be True" is one of the first books about the Bernie Madoff scandal. The book is billed as chronicling "the rise and fall" of Madoff by "the author of the groundbreaking 2001 Barron's article" on the now-incarcerated financier. Neither claim is entirely true: Madoff's rise, on the backs of (what appears to have been) a perfectly legal brokerage operation, is indeed well-documented here and appears to even have some new information. - Nathaniel Baker

Sept. 14: Alleged fraudster Pang dies: California financier Danny Pang, accused by federal regulators of defrauding investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars and under house arrest since April, will not have his day in court nor will his alleged victims, because he died Saturday morning. - Donna Block

Sept. 11: Madoff on how to outsmart the SEC: Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin released a transcript of a phone call with Fairfield Greenwich Group Wednesday during which Madoff coached its chief risk officer on how to bamboozle federal regulators. - Donna Block

Sept. 10: Madoffism becomes a world phenomenon: Everywhere seems to have its own Bernie Madoff. For example Dealscape recently highlighted Brooklyn, N.Y.'s Philip Barry, a money manager that investigators on Sept. 8 charged with ripping off more than $40 million. But the U.S. aside, even tiny Lebanon has a Madoff. - Carolyn Okomo

Sept. 9: A weekend at Bernie's in the Hamptons: At least two dozen prospective buyers spent the long Labor Day weekend at Bernie's in Montauk, at the tip of New York's Long Island, where they perused the oceanfront house. Now it seems the federal marshals, who are selling off disgraced financier Bernie Madoff's assets, may have multiple offers for the property, which is priced at $8.75 million. - Donna Block

Sept. 8: Pornographer busted for faking it: Like most things associated with the pornography industry, what you see is artificially inflated, and it may simply be faked. So it comes as no surprise that pornography purveyor Philip Barry was running a financial Ponzi scheme on the side with inflated and faked promised returns. - Donna Block

Aug. 31: Cerberus' troubles shed light on Madoff feeder funds: Problems at Cerberus Capital Management LP may provide a rare glimpse into the difficulties facing Bart M. Schwartz, the trustee charged with unwinding two of the three hedge funds managed by J. Ezra Merkin, Bernie Madoff's bosom buddy who fed $2.4 billion of his clients' assets into the historic Ponzi scheme. - Sara Behunek

Aug. 27: Stanford's world is crumbling around him: It's turning out to be a really bad day for alleged Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford. It all started when word spread Thursday morning that James Davis -- Stanford's friend, right-hand man and CFO -- pleaded guilty in a Houston court for his role in the $7 billion fraud. - Donna Block

Aug 25: Today in investment fraud: Fund manager Bradley Ruderman reportedly cheated investors, many of them family members, out of $25 million. Meanwhile, financial adviser Mary Wong reportedly stole $3 million from eight victims in a Ponzi scheme. - Sara Behunek

Aug 24: Madoff cancer report untrue: Bernard Madoff is sure to bite the big one behind bars, but it will not be of cancer, as the New York Post reported the convicted swindler is suffering. - Sara Behunek

Aug. 14: Chavez rescues Stanford victims: Hugo Chavez to the rescue. The Venezuelan president is bailing out the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda to the tune of $50 million as it tries to recover from a far-reaching banking scandal and the recession.

Fraudster R. Allen Stanford was Antigua's largest employer after the government and before his company, Stanford International Bank, was charged with running a $7 billion Ponzi scheme in February and shut down. - Donna Block

Aug. 12: Madoff associate DiPascali behind bars: Go directly to jail, do not pass go. If Bernard Madoff's right-hand man thought he would be allowed to remain free on bail because he has been cooperating with the FBI on the nitty gritty of how the $65 billion Ponzi scheme was carried out, he was wrong. - Donna Block

Aug. 11: Madoff's No. 2 is going down: It appears that a reunion between Bernie Madoff and his No. 2 for 33 years, Frank DiPascali, will have to happen behind bars. Dipascali, 52, was charged Tuesday with a laundry list of crimes that could land him in his own medium-security cell for 125 years, according to an update on the U.S. Department of Justice We bsite. - Sara Behunek

Aug. 11: Stanford's lawyer says 'show me the money': As accused Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford sits in jail, his criminal defense attorney Dick DeGuerin is heading for the exits. DeGuerin no longer wants to represent Stanford because he doesn't know if he will get paid. The court, though, is insisting that he stay on until someone else can be found. - Donna Block

Aug. 6: Cotchett targets banks in Madoff fraud: In the latest twist in the Bernard Madoff scandal, San Francisco trial lawyer Joseph Cotchett (pictured), the legal representative for several Madoff victims, is taking aim at larger investment banks, the New York Post reports. Cotchett alleges that the banks failed to conduct sufficient due diligence -- or even worse, realized that Madoff was a fraudster and didn't protect their clients. - Sara Behunek

Aug. 4: Alleged grifter's marks land on the block: Did alleged grifter Dina Wein-Reis' actions lead to the sale of Tom's of Maine? Or prompt Unilever NV  (NYSE:UN) and Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE:PG) to auction off assets involved in her 15-year-long scam? It would certainly be a stretch to believe the alleged scam that netted Wein-Reis about $12 million to $15 million a year prompted the massive multinationals to sell detergent and shampoo businesses; nonetheless, these assets landed on the auction block shortly after the parent's realized the scam. - Matthew Wurtzel

July 30: Feeder funds groan as Madoff spills his guts: Now that he's behind bars, Bernard Madoff is apparently starting to spill his guts about his decades-long $65 billion Ponzi scheme, and it looks like his revelations will mean more headaches for everyone involved. July 29, it came out that even Madoff was baffled by the Securities and Exchanges Commission's inability to sniff out his fraud. And July 30 Reuters is reporting that Joseph Cotchett, the lawyer who obtained the lengthy interview with Madoff in jail, may amend his lawsuit to possibly include several feeder fund managers. - George White

July 24: Another mini Madoff or run-of-the-mill losses?: Corey Ribotsky, a managing member of Roslyn, N.Y., hedge fund NIR Group, is under investigation as to whether he defrauded investors about their returns and the holdings of his various funds, The Wall Street Journal is reporting. - George White

July 16: Another week, another alleged Ponzi scheme: Looks like Madoff, Sanford and Dreier have new company in missing Canadian financial adviser Bertram Earl Jones. More clients claiming to have been bilked by Jones surfaced this week, adding to the chorus of accusations that the unregistered adviser allegedly ran a C$30 million to C$50 million ($27 million to $45 million) Ponzi scheme. Jones reportedly had about 50 clients in North America. - Sara Behunek

July 15: Ponzi schemers face the music: After pleading guilty to several counts of fraud arising out of a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars, defamed attorney Marc S. Dreier -- founder and managing partner of bankrupt Dreier LLP -- has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The ruling comes just a day after Bernard Madoff, 71, arrived at a federal prison in North Carolina to begin serving his 150-year sentence for his own high crimes. Madoff was sentenced on June 29 by U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin of the Southern District of New York in Manhattan. - Carolyn Okomo

July 14: Madoff arrives at N.C. prison: Bernard L. Madoff has arrived at his new home: an eight-by-eight cell at the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, N.C.
 
The Butner complex is located about 45 miles northwest of Raleigh and includes two medium-security facilities, a low-security facility and a hospital.

It's unknown if Madoff will ultimately stay in Butner, but CNBC is reporting that the facility will be his final destination. According to the AP, the complex is best known for its hospital to treat elderly or ill prisoners. - Sara Behunek

July 9: Madoff, Dreier contemplate life behind bars: Self-confessed swindler Bernard Madoff has decided to do the time and not appeal the 150-year prison sentence he received for masterminding a global multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme.

Elsewhere in the world of white-collar fraudsters, prosecutors announced Wednesday that they planned to seek a 145-year jail sentence for Marc Dreier, the lawyer who ripped off hedge funds and other investors to the tune of $400 million. - Donna Block

July 8: Madoff, make room for Sky Capital brokers: Move over Bernie, company's coming. Federal prosecutors charged six officials at Manhattan-based brokerage firm Sky Capital LLC Wednesday with running a $140 million fraud and manipulation scheme over the last eight years. - Donna Block

July 1: SIPC secures funds for Madoff victims: Some of Bernie Madoff's investors are getting an idea of where they stand in recouping their losses two days after the self-confessed swindler was sentenced to 150 years in prison, while some should be wondering if a subpoena is in their future.

The Securities Investor Protection Corp. announced that $231 million has been committed from its reserves to pay 543 claims by the con man's victims with another $2.74 billion authorized for potential recoveries in the future. - Donna Block

July 1: Allen Stanford to stay locked up: Accused Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford is going to have to get use to prison garb and grub as he awaits his trial. A federal judge revoked June 30 the $500,000 bond for the Texas billionaire accused of masterminding a $7 billion fraud. - Donna Block

June 30: Michael Imperioli to play Bernie Madoff?: We all know that the Bernard Madoff story is ripe for Hollywood's exploitation. Such a reality is evidently not lost on actor Michael Imperioli best known for his role as Christopher Moltisanti from HBO's "The Sopranos," who may be working on a possible biopic about the convicted Ponzi schemer. - Matthew Wurtzel

June 30: Madoff's accomplices investigated: Now that Bernard Madoff is behind bars for the rest of his life and then some, authorities are apparently pursuing charges against 10 other people that may have helped Madoff pull off his giant Ponzi scheme. - Maria Woehr

June 29: Ruth Madoff absolved, breaks silence: How much did Bernie Madoff's wife know? According to him, nothing. Ruth Madoff said she was "embarrassed and ashamed" and the person she married is not the person who was sentenced. Her first statement since the Dec. 11 arrest of her husband was released June 29. - Donna Block

June 29: Madoff gets the max: Judge Denny Chin threw the book at disgraced financier Bernard Madoff and Monday sentenced the self-confessed swindler to 150 years in jail.

According to televised reports, cheers and applause came from the courtroom as Madoff stood facing the judge with his hands clasped in front of him. - Donna Block

June 29: Will judge throw the book at Madoff?:  It's judgment day, quite literally, for Bernard Madoff.

The disgraced financier goes before U.S. District Judge Denny Chin June 29 to receive his prison sentence. While his lawyer has requested a fairly lenient 12 years, which might allow the 71-year-old to see the light of day again, his sentence could reach 150 years. The probation department has already told the judge that it recommends Madoff get 50 years in prison for the multibillion-dollar fraud scheme. - George White

June 26: Scandal's big week: It's been a busy week for Wall Street's biggest crooks.

Self-confessed Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff, who will be sentenced on June 29, asked for leniency; after all, he's an old man. Accused swindler R. Allen Stanford was indicted on 21 counts of conspiracy, fraud and obstruction of justice. And California business man Danny Pang was found to have pulled out at least $83 million from his investment firm before it was seized. - Donna Block

June 22: Madoff alleged accomplices charged: Few believe that Bernard Madoff acted alone in building and maintaining his $65 billion scheme. Now some of that dirty laundry is getting aired. On June 22, a brokerage firm and four individuals connected to Ponzi schemer Madoff were charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with securities fraud. - Donna Block

June 19: Stanford indicted on fraud: Texas billionaire and cricket enthusiast R. Allen Stanford will have to trade in his Saville Road suit for a prison jumpsuit. He was indicted  June 19 in federal court in Richmond, Va., for what prosecutors say is a $7 billion scheme to defraud investors. - Donna Block

June 16: Grassley demands answers from SEC: Sen. Charles Grassley is getting impatient with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Iowa Republican wants the agency to respond to his request for information about what steps it's taking to address the issues raised in a recent inspector general report about the personal securities transactions of three SEC enforcement officials.

The report, dated March 3, details a two-year investigation of two SEC enforcement staff attorneys who may have traded on nonpublic information or engaged in insider trading in stocks of companies under investigation by the agency. - Donna Block

June 16: Madoff victims speak: The anger is palpable. Over 100 investors who fell prey to convicted swindler Bernie Madoff's $65 billion Ponzi scheme vented against the scammer in a series of victim impact statements. Officials released the 141 pages consisting of 113 e-mails in all, which detail the anger, angst and pure disbelief of Madoff's victims. - Donna Block

June 15: Demand made for update on SEC's Madoff inquiry:  Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., the influential chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises, wants some answers from the Securities and Exchange Commission as to why the agency failed to detect the $65 billion Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme, and he wants them in the next two weeks. - Donna Block

June 10: Madoff circumstance worsens: The Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, which Bernard Madoff and fellow financial fraudster Marc Dreier have called home since their arrests, also became the home of Tanzanian terror suspect Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Gitmo detainee who was moved Wednesday to New York City to stand trial in federal court for the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa back in 1998. - Donna Block

June 5: Fraudsters not made for life of flight: Indiana money manager Marcus Schrenker, who is accused of trying to fake his own death by crashing his plane, is expected to plead guilty June 5 in federal court. He joins the likes of Sam Israel as a white-collar criminal who tried and failed to live life on the lam, leading Bloomberg News to explore why white-collar fraudsters are just not cut out for a life on the run. - Donna Block

June 4: Mozilo, two others charged with securities fraud: Is there a perp walk in Angelo Mozilo's future? The co-founder of Countrywide Financial Corp. was charged June 4 along with two of the firm's executives with securities fraud for deliberately misleading investors about the outsized credit risks that were taken in efforts to build and maintain the company's market share. - Donna Block

June 3: Dreier trustee widens effort to seize assets: Several former employees of a California firm affiliated with now-defunct law firm Dreier LLP will now have until June 9 to produce documents that could implicate them in an alleged plot to interfere with a trustee's efforts to seize valuable assets. - Carolyn Okomo

June 2: Schapiro looks to corporate world at SEC: Chairman Mary Schapiro said on June 2 that she wants to create the position of chief operating officer to help manage the agency and improve internal operations.

Lawmakers have been critical of the agency for failing to detect Bernard Madoff's $65 billion investment fraud. And more recently it was revealed that two agency lawyers were under investigation by the FBI and federal prosecutors for possible insider trading violations. - Donna Block

May 28: Samberg's Pequot Capital shuts down: A weary Arthur J. Samberg, leader of $3 billion-plus hedge fund Pequot Capital Management Inc., is liquidating his firm amid a reopened insider trading investigation. In a letter to investors, Samberg said that "public disclosures about the continuing investigation have cast a cloud over the firm and have become a source of personal distraction." - Baz Hiralal

May 28: Pequot's troubles vindicate former SEC lawyer: News that hedge fund Pequot Capital would shut down because of a government probe is likely to resurrect the controversy that led to the firing of SEC lawyer Gary Aguirre.

Aguirre had been investigating allegations of insider trading at Pequot, which led him to request an interview with John Mack, who is now the head of Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley. - Donna Block

May 19: Madoff affiliate Fairfield Greenwich sued: On the heels of news that at least eight of Madoff's biggest investors were being investigated by the feds for what they knew about the scheme, a suit was filed May 18 by Madoff trustee Irving Picard seeking $3.2 billion from Fairfield Greenwich, the Connecticut hedge fund that sent more money Madoff's way than anyone else. - Donna Block

May 18: Madoff may have had accomplices: Investigators are reported to have found evidence that philanthropists Jeffrey Picower and Stanly Chais may have told Madoff what they expected in return for their investments and how much they expected to find in their accounts. - Donna Block

May 15: FBI puts SEC under microscope: As if the Securities and Exchange Commission didn't have enough problems, now the Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating two of its attorneys over possible insider trading violations, according to an internal SEC report.

Among the suspicious activity identified, the report said a female attorney, who works in the enforcement division, sold all of her shares in a large healthcare company around two months before an investigation into the company was opened in her group. And, a male attorney under investigation by the FBI works in the Office of the SEC's Chief Counsel and "has access to a tremendous amount of nonpublic information." - Donna Block

May 13: Stanford CIO latest indicted: Chief investment officer for Stanford Financial Group, Laura Pendergest-Holt, was indicted May 12 by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice. It was the first of what is expected to be several indictments to come out of a federal investigation into a suspected $8.5 billion fraud that investigators say was committed by Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford and his top executives. - Donna Block

May 12: Happy birthday, Dreier, next year in jail: New York lawyer Marc. S. Dreier is celebrating his 59th birthday May 12, a day after pleading guilty to what authorities have called a fraud scheme that separated hedge funds and other investors from at least $400 million. Since Dreier could face a life sentence for conspiring to commit securities and wire fraud, money laundering and related charges, the only thing he's likely to be celebrating is that Judge Jed S. Rakoff of Federal District Court in Manhattan has allowed him to remain in his $10 million Upper East Side apartment until sentencing July 13. - Donna Block

May 7: Pang's personal piggy bank: California financier Danny Pang, who is accused of defrauding Taiwanese investors, also used their money to fund an over-the-top luxury lifestyle, including a $35 million fleet of jets, a $1 million Disney cruise and $6.9 million in undocumented loans, a court-appointed receiver said May 7. - Donna Block

May 7: Where is Madoff's money?: We got a partial answer to that question Wednesday from Irving Picard, the trustee liquidating Madoff Investment Securities LLC: Madoff turned his investment firm into his "personal piggy bank," using tens of millions of dollars in client funds to cover costs for employees and family members, court papers say. - Maria Woehr

Of course, there are ways to vent your recession aggression, and if you'd like to Smash-A-Madoff, you can do that too ...

BERNIE MADOFF

Flashback ...

Dec. 12: Feds charge Madoff with massive Ponzi scheme: Bernard L. Madoff, a former Nasdaq Stock Market chairman and founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, may join the ranks of financial fraudsters Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken and Dennis Kozlowski if the charges of securities fraud in what federal prosecutors called a $50 billion Ponzi scheme are true. - Donna Block

Fast Forward ...

April 14: Creditors put Madoff into liquidation: April 13 didn't fall on a Friday, but it was unlucky for Bernie Madoff nonetheless. It was on that Monday that Madoff, like his lesser-known doppelganger Marc S. Dreier, was placed into Chapter 7 involuntarily by five creditors who are collectively owed more than $63 million. To date, Madoff has been charged with defrauding both high- and low-profile investors out of more than $50 billion. - Carolyn Okomo

April 8: Mets, Madoff estate to sell tickets: The New York Mets and the SIPC trustee overseeing the wind-down of Bernie Madoff's firm cut a deal to sell the fraudster's season tickets at Citi Field. - John Blakeley

April 6: Madoff haunts Merkin from jail: Bernie Madoff may be locked up in solitary confinement as he awaits sentencing, but his presence continues to be felt outside of jail nonetheless. The latest to feel Madoff's shadow is Ezra Merkin, the former GMAC Financial Services chairman. Merkin is facing two lawsuits for his involvement with Madoff. On one side is Boston Properties chairman Mort Zuckerman, and on the other is New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. - George White

April 1: Madoff accomplice: Fairfield Greenwich: Regulators are closing in on Bernie Madoff's nearest and dearest. Fairfield Greenwich Group, a Madoff feeder fund, was charged Wednesday with fraud for breaching its fiduciary duty. - Donna Block

March 31: Madoff centerpiece of scammer trading card set: Topps Co. this summer will be offering a set of trading cards it dubs the "world's biggest hoaxes, hoodwinks and bamboozles" of the last two centuries. - Gerald Magpily

March 30: Madoff unit sold for $500K: Boston-based Castor Pollux Securities is the stalking-horse bidder to buy Madoff's trading business for a steal. In fact, Madoff's Mets tickets may be more valuable. - Donna Block

March 20: Madoff is staying in jail

March 18: Madoff's auditor charged with securities fraud: Bernie Madoff's auditors were charged Wednesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission with committing securities fraud. - Donna Block

March 12: Madoff refuses to name names: Madoff's plea deal fell apart when he refused to agree to conspiracy charges that would include others. - George White

March 10: Madoff to plead guilty Thursday

Feb. 11: Ruth Madoff caught with hand in cookie jar: The wife of the alleged fraudster, Ruth Madoff, withdrew $5.5 million on Nov. 25 and another $10 million on Dec. 10, the day before her husband's arrest. - George White

Feb. 10: Madoff in court Wednesday

Feb. 6: Loophole here, loophole there: For the little accounting firm that supposedly audited Bernard Madoff's securities outfit, it was easy to escape regulatory scrutiny. - Donna Block

Feb. 4: Madoff victim seeks unique clawback: A lawyer wants his ex to pay back the money he gave her to split the value of an account the two had with alleged fraudster Bernard Madoff. -- George White

Feb. 4: Markopolos: SEC fears Wall Street: In congressional testimony, Bernie Madoff whistleblower Harry Markopolos said the SEC "roars like a lion and bites like a flea." - Donna Block

Jan. 23: Distressed Investing 2009: Harvey Pitt on the implications of Madoff's scheme: Check out the video.

Jan. 13: Is a plea deal in the works for Bernie Madoff?: It appears that a fun-filled trial recounting how Bernard Madoff fooled so many investors and assumed a post atop the financial world may not happen after all. A plea deal, it seems, may be in the works. - George White

Jan. 13: Madoff investment comes back to haunt Banco Santander: Banco Santander SA is proud of the fact that it's emerged relatively unscathed from the credit crisis and has been able to strike bargain-basement deals in the U.K. in the process. But the faint whiff of smugness has smelled wrong ever since the Madrid bank revealed last month that it had €2.3 billion ($3.1 billion) of clients' money invested in funds affiliated with Bernard Madoff, mastermind of an alleged $50 billion investment fraud. - Laura Board

Jan. 12: Madoff remains out on bail

Jan. 7: Legal battle looms for Madoff investors: Some redeeming investors may have to return not just profits but also principal.

Jan. 5: Prosecutor wants Madoff's bail revoked; Wall Street banks steered clear of Bernie Madoff; SEC head grilled by Congress on Madoff fraud

Dec. 15-17: Madoff advised the SEC, while duping it; European banks tally Madoff losses; Madoff leaves funds-of-funds with plenty of explaining to do; Madoff cheats at golf too

Dec. 12: Bernie Madoff and Marc Dreier top SEC's $#!& list: There's no lack of news as lawmakers are dealing with the credit market fallout and bailing out a crippled auto industry, which everyone has an opinion about. The most disheartening reports, though, come from the law having to deal with individuals that have stolen billion of dollars from investors, and two men are atop their list of priorities: Bernie Madoff and Marc Dreier. - Baz Hiralal

LEHMAN BROTHERS, AIG

March 18: N.J. adds to Lehman litigation load: The Garden State sued a group of former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. executives and directors, alleging that fraud and misleading public statements caused N.J.'s public pension fund to lose at least $118 million. - John Blakeley

March 6: Sinner circle: Leo Strine allows American International Group Inc. shareholders to sue Hank Greenberg and his underlings but lets PricewaterhouseCoopers off the hook. - David Marcus

SATYAM

Jan.23: Satyam's search for truth: Indian outsourcer Satyam Computer Services Ltd. finds itself with cooked books and new government bosses. Now what? - Matt Miller

April 13: Relief for Satyam; Tech Mahindra is highest bidder

April 2: BofA hiring Satyam staffers by hundreds?

March 27: Spice Group drops out of race for fraudulent Satyam

March 6: Fraud-hit Satyam approved for 51% sale, shares rise

Feb. 19: Fraud-hit Satyam cleared for auction

Jan. 9: Enron went bankrupt, but what of Satyam's future?; Jan. 15: Enron? Maybe Satyam is more like WorldCom; Jan. 7: What does Satyam fraud mean for FDI in India?

MARC DREIER

April 28: Dreier will plead guilty: There will be no plea bargain for Marc S. Dreier, the New York law firm founder accused of defrauding hedge funds out of hundreds of millions of dollars. Dreier will plead guilty to federal charges including conspiracy and wire fraud next month. - Donna Block

May 6: The Dreier disclosures deadline set; April 1: Dreier phoenix to merge with Fox Rothschild; March 24: A hot summer awaits Marc Dreier

Jan. 27: More courtrooms for Dreier: The legal problems for Marc S. Dreier, the embattled founder and former managing partner of law firm Dreier LLP, continue to mount. First, it was criminal charges. Now you can add bankruptcy issues, too. - Carolyn Okomo

Jan. 7: A phoenix rises from Dreier LLP's ashes: It looks like there just may be life after the collapse of law firm Dreier LLP. As the firm continues to crumble in Chapter 11 under the weight of fraud charges lodged against its founder and managing partner, some associated with the firm are now seizing the opportunity to break out from the firm's mired shadow. - Carolyn Okomo

PENSION PAY-FOR-PLAY

May 1: Placement test: After years of allegations, the lid has finally blown off New York's pension pay-for-play system. Whether any real reform will take place is another matter. - Vyvyan Tenorio

April 30: Aldus' founder Meyer charged in 'pay to play': Private equity firm Aldus Equity Partners LP and its founder Saul Meyer were charged April 30 by the Securities and Exchange Commission with participating in a multimillion-dollar "pay to play" scheme involving New York's largest pension fund. In an amended complaint attached to a motion filed in federal district court in Manhattan, the SEC alleges that Meyer and Aldus participated in a fraudulent kickback scheme in order to win investment business from the $122 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund.

The SEC previously charged Henry "Hank" Morris and David Loglisci for orchestrating a fraudulent scheme to enrich Morris and other political allies and associates including former New York Liberal party chief Raymond Harding and ex-hedge fund executive Barrett Wissman, who have also been charged in the case. - Donna Block

April 17: What fallout from Rattner's involvement in N.Y. inquiry?: Steve Rattner, face of the Obama administration's auto task force, is under scrutiny in an investigation by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and the Securities and Exchange Commission into placement fees paid to middlemen by investment firms seeking capital from New York's $122 billion pension fund. Rattner, who co-founded private equity firm Quadrangle Partners LLC, isn't accused of wrongdoing, and a Treasury spokesperson told The Washington Post and other news organizations it was aware of the inquiry when Rattner got his job on the task force. - Kenneth Klee

BARRETT WISSMAN

April 16: Wissman, Pang join growing list of frauds: While Bernie Madoff, Arthur Nadel and Marc Dreier compare the cut of their prison jumpsuits, and R. Allen Stanford sheds tears on television, the ranks of schemers and dreamers are not only getting wider but wilder. Barrett Wissman, a hedge fund executive, may soon be sending some of his compatriots to join the others at the Metropolitan Correctional Facility after pleading guilty to securities fraud as part of an investigation of corruption at New York's $122 billion pension fund, state officials said April 15. - Donna Block

REGULATION: WHISTLEBLOWERS, SWAT TEAMS AND MORE

May 7: GAO report criticizes SEC under Cox: Even before Bernie Madoff was the news topic du jour, the Securities and Exchange Commission was riddled with internal conflicts, according to a government watchdog report. - Donna Block

April 29: Kwak, Johnson on cleaning up crony capitalism: Baseline Scenario's James Kwak and Simon Johnson explore crony capitalism's role in today's financial crisis. - Robert Teitelman

April 29: SEC may form SWAT teams: Robert Khuzami, director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, reportedly is working on plans to set up teams of specialists who will focus on specific kinds of wrongdoing. - Donna Block

April 21: Watchdog warns of TARP abuse: The Treasury Department's plan to buy up toxic assets from banks' balance sheets is vulnerable to fraud and should not proceed without tough rules against conflicts of interest, the government's bailout watchdog said Tuesday. (See more in Pipeline)

April 17: Schapiro brings change to SEC: Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro gave her first television interview since taking the helm of the agency to PBS' "Nightly Business Report." Schapiro told correspondent Stephanie Dhue that change is coming to the agency. - Donna Block

April 1: TARP cop starts cracking down: Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the troubled assets relief program, tells the Senate there's only $109 billion left in TARP and his office has a dozen investigations into fraud. - George White

March 18: TARP trap: TARP recipients should be wary of exposing themselves to liability under the False Claims Act.

Feb. 20: Deutsche's Khuzami to be SEC enforcement chief: The former prosecutor, who put away Patrick Bennett for a $1 billion Ponzi scheme in the 1990s, will oversee the SEC's division of enforcement. - Baz Hiralal

Feb. 17: True colors: A simple solution would bring transparency to the hedge fund industry.

Feb. 6: Mary Schapiro: SEC 'to act like our hair is on fire': Mary Schapiro, the new head of the SEC, is taking steps to beef up regulation over Wall Street institutions and uncover Ponzi schemes quickly. - Maria Woehr

Jan. 23: Board to distraction: The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has made an unintended contribution to the current economic crisis.

Jan. 5: Madoff may force the SEC to re-evaluate enforcement unit: While alleged fraudster Bernard L. Madoff was pleading with a judge in New York not to revoke his bail Jan. 5, the Securities and Exchange Commission was feeling the wrath of Capitol Hill lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee, which was holding hearings in to the failure of government regulators to identify and stop Madoff's alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme. -- Donna Block

Dec. 17: Cox attempts damage control in light of Madoff scandal; Congress jumps all over Madoff scandal; Politicians get sucked into Madoff case

R. ALLEN STANFORD, ARTHUR NADEL

May 1: Nadel tries to get out of jail; Stanford tries to get in: While Florida hedge fund manager Arthur Nadel tried to get his bail reduced April 30 so he can get out of jail, R. Allen Stanford, the Texas billionaire accused of running an $8 billion investment fraud, tried unsuccessfully to get into jail. Stanford, who is facing civil fraud charges, turned up at the federal courthouse in Houston April 30 and tried to surrender himself in an apparent show of defiance. Stanford is being sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission along with two employees, on allegations they ran a "massive ongoing fraud" through the sale of high-yield certificates of deposit using Antigua-based Stanford International Bank Ltd. Stanford denies any wrongdoing and hasn't been charged with a crime.

Meanwhile, Nadel pleaded not guilty on April 30 to an indictment of running a $360 million investment fraud, and his lawyer asked a judge to ease the conditions for him to make bail. Prosecutors say Nadel went on the run for two weeks in January before his arrest on initial charges, but his lawyer said he is in poor health and not a flight risk. Nadel has been dubbed "mini-Madoff" as his funds enriched him and defrauded 350 clients who invested more than $360 million, the government said. The judge scheduled a hearing for June 4 to hear arguments over the previously set conditions of $5 million bail, which Nadel, who is 76, has been unable to meet. - Donna Block

April 28: Latest fraudster Nadel indicted

April 21: Stanford swears there was no fraud: Accused of perpetrating a Ponzi scheme, Allen Stanford again takes to the media to claim it is not true. - Donna Block

March 27: Allen Stanford hires famed attorney DeGuerin

March 11: Stanford blows off SEC

Feb. 27: Stanford employees go unpaid; Stanford associate nabbed

Feb. 20: Stanford owns four homes, six jets: Allen Stanford lived it up on the backs of the people he defrauded, amassing four homes, six jets and maybe even a private Caribbean island. - Donna Block

Feb. 20: Stanford gets served: A nationwide search for Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford ended Thursday. He was then served with papers accusing him of an $8 billion fraud. - Donna Block

Feb. 18: Stanford, Madoff gave lots of dosh to politicians: Robert Allen Stanford, the billionaire accused of "massive fraud," and Bernard Madoff, who allegedly ran the largest Ponzi scheme ever, opened their wallets for political contributions. - Donna Block

So then ... Pols give up fraudster's money.

Feb. 17: SEC shuts down another possible fraud: The Securities and Exchange Commission acted to end an $8 billion "massive ongoing fraud," allegedly perpetrated by Robert Allen Stanford. - Donna Block

Jan. 27: FBI catches another schemer on the lam: Nowhere to run. So Arthur Nadel, the Florida hedge fund adviser who disappeared in mid-January, turned himself in to authorities Jan. 27. He was charged with defrauding investors of tens of millions of dollars. -- Donna Block

Jan. 20: Another mini-Madoff surfaces

NIGERIAN E-MAIL SCAM?

Feb. 23: Citi falls for the Nigerian e-mail scam: In a twist on the swindle, a Nigerian man gets Citigroup Inc. to wire him and his associates $27 million. - George White

DANNY PANG

April 29: PEMGroup's Pang arrested by FBI: Danny Pang, the California-based financier accused by federal regulators of defrauding investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars, was arrested April 28 by the FBI on charges he withdrew about $360,000 from a company account through a bevy of small transactions so he wouldn't have to make reports to federal regulators. - Donna Block

April 28: SEC charges Pang

TOM PETTERS

April 22: Petters' Polaroid Ponzi scheme: Minnesota businessman Tom Petters is accused of using the now bankrupt Polaroid brand to run a massive Ponzi scheme. - Donna Block

LAWRENCE SALANDER: ART DEALER TO JOHN MCENROE

March 26: Art dealer to John McEnroe arrested: Tennis star-turned-broadcaster John McEnroe was duped along with investment firms, art owners and the Bank of America Corp. in a sophisticated $88 million art investment scam, officials said. - Mary Kathleen Flynn

AND A WHOLE LOT MORE

Feb. 4: McGladrey again accused of fraud: Accounting firm McGladrey & Pullen is again at the center of a fraud lawsuit. - John Blakeley

Jan. 27: Yet another alleged Ponzi scheme: The list of alleged Ponzi scheme operators is really starting to add up. The latest came Jan. 26 as authorities arrested Nicholas Cosmo, the head of Agape World Inc., on charges that his firm wasn't providing commercial bridge loans with its $400 million in capital, but was instead only paying off early investors with money from the new ones. - George White

Jan. 16: At Pharmed, brothers in arms and in fraud: The founders of bankrupt medical supply distributor Pharmed Group Holdings Inc., brothers Carlos and Jorge de Cespedes, will go to jail for nine years, a U.S. District Court judge in Florida has ruled. - Jamie Mason

Jan. 14: Three fraudsters: One arrested, one on the lam, one under the weather: Alleged financial schemers Marcus Schrenker, the financial adviser accused of defrauding investors through three of his companies, and Robert Jaffe, a Bernard Madoff associate, have both been found, but  Raoul Weil, a former UBS employee accused of facilitating tax evasion, remains on the lam. - Donna Block

Jan. 13: Massachusetts accuses Reserve of fraud: Another day, another accusation of fraud. The latest case involves money market pioneer Reserve Management Co., which Massachusetts' top securities regulator has charged with making false statements concerning its Primary Fund that melted down after infamously "breaking the buck" late last year. - Donna Block

Jan. 8: More Ponzi scheme headaches for the SEC: Call it Madoff-lite. Even though it missed that really big alleged scam with Bernie Madoff, the Securities and Exchange Commission is still on the lookout for fraudsters and appears to have caught one in Philadelphia-area fund manager Joseph Forte. The agency charged Forte with operating a $50 million Ponzi scheme and obtained an emergency court order freezing his assets. - George White

Dec. 30: SEC busts up a Ponzi scheme: The SEC may have been slow to pick up on Bernie Madoff's massive swindle, but it hasn't been entirely remiss on the fraud beat. The comission says it has stomped out another alleged Ponzi scheme, one that collected around $23 million from thousands of investors in Florida's Haitian-American community. - Maria Woehr

Dec. 16: Lampoon's Laikin not laughing at fraud charges: Conspiracy and securities fraud charges were filed for four separate schemes designed to artificially inflate the prices of publicly traded stocks. Among those charged is Daniel Laikin, CEO of National Lampoon Inc. - Baz Hiralal

Dec. 15: Did the banks perpetrate a Ponzi scheme?: The media has accepted Bernard Madoff's reported admission that his $50 billion Ponzi scheme is the largest in history, but Janet Tavakoli, president of Tavakoli Structured Finance, disagrees. The financial consultant argues the U.S. banking industry in fact pulled off a far larger fraud. - Matthew Wurtzel

Dec. 12: Deal deviants: The bull market returns -- in fraud.

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