SERVIÇO PÚBLICO: Cinco ideias para melhorar os mercados de quem quase os afundou

Bern Madoff, condenado a 150 anos de prisão por ter montado o maior esquema de Ponzi da história, depois dos esquemas de segurança social, foi entrevistado pelo Market Watch e deu ideias para melhorar os mercados e ele sabe do que fala. Aqui vão elas:

«1.) The SEC needs more resources to protect investors.

The SEC is grossly undercapitalized and doesn’t have money to hire the right people. Basically, it’s a training ground, and by the time its people are qualified they leave for work at private firms. “They didn’t catch me because the whistleblower, Harry Markopolos, was leading them down the wrong alley,” Madoff told MarketWatch. “He was an idiot.”


2.) Hedge funds are a danger to the market and need to be registered.

A major flaw on Wall Street is exempting hedge funds registration requirements if they manage less than $100 million. Madoff said he didn’t register with the SEC until 2006 as an investment adviser. “From 2006 to 2008, when I was caught, I never had an investment-adviser inspection by the SEC,” Madoff related. “They are supposed to do it every two years. If I had an inspection, I would have been caught sooner.”

3.) Brokerages and advisers should have independent custodians.

“The government should have forced me to have an independent custodian,” conceded Madoff. “Client funds should be held by independent custodians. If they had, I would have been caught long ago. If I had had an inspection by the SEC, they would have looked at the custodian accounts and seen the funds on my books did not match the funds in the accounts and I would have been caught.”

4.) Brokerages and investment firms should hold money with depository trustees.

Depository trusts verify to auditors the funds are being held, while auditors conduct spot checks and verify with brokerage firms or accountants. “That wasn’t done in my case,” Madoff said. “If that was done, I would have been caught much sooner.”

5.) Accounting firms should audit other accounting firms.

Accounting firms should be enlisted to check on their peers, which would make sure audits have been conducted properly, suggested Madoff. “But these firms use the excuse of competition. If accounting firms keep each other in check, a proper audit would uncover most of the fraud that exists — including my own fraud.”»