Sociology

The main focus of the video The Madoff Affair is about the biggest financial scam throughout history. The setting is midtown Manhattan in America. The most well-known term for the scandal is the Ponzi scheme. The first part of the video showed the effects of the scam and the reactions of the people. The day when the bad news spread like wildfire, people were calling one another especially in Wall Street. There were many questions at Bernard Madoff who was arrested due to the Ponzi scheme. There were many reporters who asked him with respect to the money he hoarded from investors. These investors may be ordinary investors or some are managers of various entities. In addition, the story of Madoff as a younger person was explained. He was an accountant who worked for his fathers accounting firm.

The Ponzi scheme offered a return of 80 for every investment endeavor. The dirty work was done via investment advisory business. In the video, many investors talked about how they became victims of the scam. Madoffs business partner mentioned that they always offer big returns for huge amount of money and small returns for the small ones. For ten million dollar a year, Madoff clandestinely increased his business. It was even called easy money, just like a machine making money. Because the business provided an increased profit, Madoffs business partner named Avelino opened another office in Wall Street. The building was so high that it could tell viewers that the business is really huge. However, the problem of the Madoff investment advisory business started when their clients increased rapidly. Madoff and its associates can no longer pay the interests or profits of their clients.

Finally, the most notable situation in the Madoff affair is that clients were not aware that Madoff exists. Madoff was able to hide his identity from the clients and worked for his business through some business partners.  The Security and Exchange Commission was tipped on the scam and caught Avelino and his business partners unregistered securities. At first, Madoff was not caught. But in 2008, the market crashed and the Ponzi scheme was disclosed. Therefore, there were many people called to explain the scam. The last part of the video provided the stories of various investors as victims of the Ponzi scheme.