 Who are the key players?

In this scam, Bernie Madoff is the key player. Bernie Madoff was born on April 29,
1938 in Queens, New York. Bernie Madoff, a former American financier, is currently
serving a sentence in federal prison for executing the largest Ponzi scheme in history.
He was a pioneer in electronic trading and served as chairman of Nasdaq in the early
1990s. Bernie Madoff claims to be the operator of the largest Ponzi scheme in the
history of the world and the largest financial fraud case in the history of the United
States. Thousands of investors have been defrauded from hundreds of billions of
dollars in funds for at least 17 years and even longer. As of November 30, 2008,
prosecutors estimated based on Madoff's 4,800 customer accounts that the total value
of fraud cases was $64.8 billion. Although Madoff claimed to have produced a large
and stable return through an investment strategy called split transaction conversion,
Madoff simply deposited customer funds in a bank account that was used to cash out
existing Customer payment. He funded the redemption by attracting new investors
and their funds, but was unable to sustain fraud when the market fell sharply in late
2008.
In 2009, Madoff was 71 years old and pleaded guilty to 11 federal felony counts,
including securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, perjury and money laundering. The
Ponzi scheme has become a powerful symbol of a culture of greed and dishonesty.
Before the financial crisis broke out, critics generally believed that it filled Wall
Street. Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison and ordered to confiscate $170
million in assets.
 What was the financial scam or scheme?
In 1960, at the age of 22, Bernie Madoff founded his own company Bernard L.
Madoff Investment Securities Co., Ltd. It started as a penny stock trader with an
initial income of $5,000, which Madoff received from the installation work of
lifeguards and sprinklers. He also received a $50,000 loan from his father-in-law,
which he also used to establish the company. With the help of his father-in-law
accountant Saul Alpern, his business was developed. Initially, the company passed the
pink sheet market (quotation and asking price) of the National Quotation Bureau. In
order to compete with the member companies of the New York Stock Exchange, his
company began to use innovative computer information technology to disseminate its
quotes. After trial operation, the technology that the company helped develop became
Nasdaq. After 41 years of sole proprietorship, Madoff Law Firm was established as a
limited liability company in 2001, with Madoff as the sole shareholder.
The company acts as a third-market provider, bypassing exchange professional
companies by executing retail broker orders directly on the counter. Madoff Securities
was once the largest market maker on Nasdaq, and in 2008 it was the sixth largest
market maker on Wall Street. The company also has an undisclosed investment
management and consulting department, which is the focus of fraud investigations.
It is not certain when Madoff's Ponzi scheme began. He testified in court that the case
started in 1991, but his account manager Frank DiPascali has been working for the
company since 1975, and he said that this kind of fraud occurred for "a long time."
Madoff apparently convinced the customer with super high returns. In fact, he just
 deposited their funds into an account of Chase Manhattan Bank (the bank was merged
into JPMorgan Chase in 2000) and then asked them to sit down. According to one
estimate, the bank may have earned as much as $483 million from these deposits, so it
is reluctant to ask. When customers wished to redeem their investment, Madoff used
new capital to fund expenditures. He earned reputation with incredible returns and
raised the victims by earning trust. Madoff also established an exclusive image,
usually initially shutting out customers. This model allows about half of Madoff's
investors to cash in profits. These investors are required to make payments to the
Victim’s Fund to compensate fraudulent investors who have suffered losses. Madoff
created a respected and generous front and attracted investors through his charitable
work. He also deceived some non-profit organizations, some of which almost ran out
of funds, including the Eli Wiesel Peace Foundation and the global women’s charity
Hadassah. He used his friendship with J. Ezra Merkin, an official of the Fifth Avenue
Synagogue in Manhattan, to get close to the people. Through various accounts,
Madoff defrauded US$1 billion to US$2 billion from his members.
The SEC was condemned in 2008 because of Madoff’s fraud and major banks’
wrongdoing in the mortgage-backed securities and mortgage debt obligations market.
On December 10, 2008, Madoff’s son told the authorities that their father confessed to
them that his company’s asset management department was a large-scale Ponzi
scheme. The next day, FBI agents arrested Madoff and charged him with a crime of
securities fraud. On March 12, 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felony
counts and admitted to turning his wealth management business into a Ponzi scheme.
The Madoff investment scandal deceived thousands of investors billions of dollars.
Madoff said that he started to implement Ponzi schemes in the early 1990s, but
federal investigators believe that fraud can be traced back to the mid-1980s, and may
be as early as the 1970s. The person responsible for recovering lost money believes
that investment operations may never be legal. The missing amount in client accounts
was nearly $65 billion, including fabricated earnings. The Securities Investor
Protection Corporation (SIPC) trustee estimates that the actual loss of investors was
US$18 billion. On June 29, 2009, Madoff was sentenced to a maximum of 150 years
in prison.
 What laws were violated? Or, if the scam is really old, what current laws
would have been violated? & What was the response to the scam of government
regulators? Did it lead to any changes in the law?
The written records of the victims’ claims show the complexity and scale of Madoff’s
betrayal of investors. According to documents, Madoff's scam has been in operation
for more than five years since the 1960s. His final account statement included
millions of pages of false transactions and improper accounting treatments, showing
that the company had $47 billion in "profits." Madoff pleaded guilty in 2009 and will
spend the rest of his life in prison, but thousands of investors have lost their savings,
and there are multiple stories detailing the tragic losses suffered by the victims.
Bernie Madoff’s actions seriously violated the Securities Act of 1933, Securities
Exchange Act of 1934, Investment Company Act of 1940 and Investment Advisory
Act of 1940. As the latest and largest Ponzi scheme, the Madoff scheme reminds the
SEC and market regulators to keep cracking down on such illegal financiers to protect
the interests of investors.
References:
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bernard-madoff.asp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Madoff