Giant fraud

WTF?_2

Generali wrote: »

Some were incompetent so deserve the sack. I feel sorry for anyone else losing their job though and unfortunately that is the nature of these things - someone else fcks up and you pay for it with your job. Not a good time to be unemployed right now.

... and British taxpayers will probably end up making good a lot of the losses to the UK based organisations involved.

Old_Slaphead

!!!!!!? wrote: »

... and British taxpayers will probably end up making good a lot of the losses to the UK based organisations involved.

What's another couple of hundred million when you're in hock for £2.5 trillion - just bung it on the plastic.

harryhound

Generali wrote: »

Perhaps they cashed out before it was uncovered.

Under USA law, isn't that receiving stolen goods, so they would have to give it back!
(A bit like cashing the building society cheque from that nice man who bought your old motor, only to have the bank grab it back some time later).

The USA regulators did a truly pathetic job, as did their financial journalists.
It reminds me of the Grays building society; that bloke employed a "one man and a dog" auditor and they used to go through half the books on day one and the other half on day two. Overnight the fraudster used to swap the huge debt between tomorrow and yesterday. He got away with it for years, until there was a glitch and he did not get the tame auditor.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/oct/11/banks

Must get a round to it and watch the last episode of "Little Dorrit":D

Generali

harryhound wrote: »

Under USA law, isn't that receiving stolen goods, so they would have to give it back!
(A bit like cashing the building society cheque from that nice man who bought your old motor, only to have the bank grab it back some time later).

The offence is 'fraudulent conveyance'. If someone has ripped off other investors to pay you then you don't get to keep the money in the same way that if you buy a stolen car the original owner can take it back as the person you 'bought' it from didn't have the right to sell it.

harryhound wrote: »

The USA regulators did a truly pathetic job, as did their financial journalists.
It reminds me of the Grays building society; that bloke employed a "one man and a dog" auditor and they used to go through half the books on day one and the other half on day two. Overnight the fraudster used to swap the huge debt between tomorrow and yesterday. He got away with it for years, until there was a glitch and he did not get the tame auditor.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/oct/11/banks

The whole point of hedge funds is that they don't have loads of regulation to put up with so can give higher returns. As a result, only people termed Sophisticated or Professional investors can invest. The individuals and funds investing in Madoff's scheme would have known that it was caveat emptor. The people that should be suing are the investors in funds of funds that were paying good money for due diligence to be done for them.

harryhound wrote: »

Must get a round to it and watch the last episode of "Little Dorrit"

We are only allowed sport, US sitcoms, sport, Quality UK Drama (eg The Bill), the news in Turkish and sport in Aus.

I quite like sport so it could be worse.

harryhound

Does Iplayer (aka Kservice) reject you somehow if you try to "watch again" on the BBC from down under?

Kenny4315

Did anyone see the interview with the UK fraud head yesterday..... it was truly unbelievable that this plonker is in charge of such an important area... he hardly seemed able to answer a single question.

If his staff are as on-the-boil as him then a career in serious fraud seems like a highly lucrative job, as it will be impossible to get caught.

steadysaver

Imagine my disapointment when this thread wasn't about jack, and the "person" who sold him those magic beans. I thought they had finally caught up with them.

Generali

harryhound wrote: »

Does Iplayer (aka Kservice) reject you somehow if you try to "watch again" on the BBC from down under?

I can't use iPlayer on this PC as it's running Windows 95 which isn't compatible with Real Player which iPlayer seems to be based on.

iPlayer does have a squizz to see which country you're from as there are issues with copyright, sports rights and so on. I understand that this is possible to get around and that some people over here gain access to Match of the Day and then pop it on a DVD for their brother-in-law for example.

lostinrates

Kenny4315 wrote: »

Did anyone see the interview with the UK fraud head yesterday..... it was truly unbelievable that this plonker is in charge of such an important area... he hardly seemed able to answer a single question.

If his staff are as on-the-boil as him then a career in serious fraud seems like a highly lucrative job, as it will be impossible to get caught.

We did have a highly competant head of SFO..then government 'redirected' some of the SFO enquiries, then made SFO the fall guys.

That interview was APPALING and on can only hope that it was so because the interview was agreed to prmaturely and the guy's hands were really tied in what he could say. Sadly, I'm fairly without hope on that one.

neverdespairgirl

lostinrates wrote: »

We did have a highly competant head of SFO..then government 'redirected' some of the SFO enquiries, then made SFO the fall guys.

We did? When?