The Sixty-Four Billion Dollar Con Job
You have a substantial sum of money which you want to intelligently invest so as to make a reasonable return on your investment. You are not looking at any “double your money in ninety days” type of schemes. Perhaps you are the manager of a pension fund or a trust fund or a non-profit foundation. Perhaps you are a private investor and would like to stay ahead of the inflation rate without risking any of your principal. As the financial manager, you have a fiduciary duty to investigate and research any investment of funds that you make on behalf of the person or entity that you are representing. As a private investor you have the fiduciary duty to yourself, your spouse and your family to handle your life’s savings wisely. These are logical and rational approaches to investing funds. You need to place your trust in someone who you can unequivocally trust with your money. I will venture to say that you would not place your substantial sum of money in the hands of the guy in the image above. While some people reek of cologne, this guy reeks of sleaze. The only thing missing is a pencil thin mustache. If you would lookup the definition of the phrase “sleazy con artist”, you might even see this guy’s image next to the printed definition.
The bottom line in allowing another person to invest your money on your behalf is finding someone that you can safely trust with your money. Someone with a rock solid reputation. Someone who is vouched for by people whose judgement you trust and respect. Someone who perhaps is well known for his philanthropy. Someone whose lifestyle clearly reflects the ability to be quite successful in financial investment matters. Someone like…..Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. Of course I am referring to Bernie Madoff, aka Bernie the Con Man, aka Bernie the Sixty Four Billion Dollar Man, aka Bernie the Fraudster, aka Bernie the Liar, aka…..well you get the idea. Bernie Madoff, who ran the biggest Ponzi scheme in history to the tune of sixty four billion dollars.
A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing
If you google the image of Bernie Madoff, what you see is nothing like the image of poor Mr. Sleaze above. What you will see is the image of a very respectable looking, well dressed, well groomed businessman. Such is the stock in trade of the classic con man. The word con man is short for “confidence man”. In other words, someone who has a high degree of skill in gaining the confidence of his targeted victims. The con man presents the impressive facade that puts the investor at ease. That part of the con is called “the front”. Once the victim is hooked, the con man is adept at gently reeling him in. Part of the front of the con man is having word of mouth testimonials from actual investors. You may not put much stock in a paid advertisement but a testimonial from your brother, your uncle, your friend, your business associate, your current financial advisor, is something that carries a lot of weight.
In Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, he generated extensive word of mouth referrals by paying in full to a number of investors who wished to redeem their investment. He did this by using “new money” provided by new investors. He likewise generated a “history of proven results” by providing all investors with quarterly statements showing steady and consistent returns on their money of between ten and twelve percent per year. At that rate the investors who “let it ride” would double their initial investment in just seven years. Of course those statements were as phony as a three dollar bill. It was definitely not a “double your money in ninety days” type of con. It was perceived as steady and reliable as the Rock of Gibraltar. He carried on with this scheme for a very long time until it all came crashing down in the recession of 2008. Large numbers of investors requested redemptions of their funds and Bernie wasn’t able to cover the nut any longer. In 2008, he plead guilty to his crimes. He died in prison in 2021.
It Has To Be Legit, Just Look At His Investor List
The Madoff con job fooled some of the top hedge fund managers and major investment banks. The magnitude of the con is staggering. Some of the most highly touted MBA financial advisors in the world got flimflammed. Some of the most respected names in global banking got bamboozled. One poor money manger committed suicide by slitting his wrists while another jumped to his death from the twenty-fourth floor of an office building. Average everyday people lost their life savings that they had entrusted to financial advisors. Madoff was a giant money vacuum cleaner sucking in money from all directions.
Television celebrities, movie stars, sports figures, politicians, charities, pension funds, hedge funds, universities, churches, financial management firms, banks of all sizes, they all got sucked into the Madoff vacuum cleaner. One investor told the judge at Madoff’s sentencing hearing – “He stole from the rich. He stole from the poor. He stole from the in between. He had no moral values whatsoever. He cheated all his victims out of their money so he and his wife could live a life of luxury.” (As to stealing from the poor, I would assume the investor was talking about the charities Madoff stole from. Said charities would have aided the poor).
A telling quote comes from another of the victims – author of fifty-seven books, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor, Elie Weisel: “We thought he was God. We trusted everything in his hands”. Of course Weisel did not mean to infer that Madoff was believed to be God. He just used that as a figure of speech to indicate the utmost trust that the victims had in Madoff.
Seek Ye First The Kingdom Of God
Jesus states very clearly in the book of Matthew what the objective of every person on earth should be: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness”. If you are able to free yourself somehow from the countless distractions of the world and center yourself in the Kingdom of God within, everything that you came here in this world to do, shall be done. Human beings throw themselves needless detours when they base their lives and place their trust on anything outside the Kingdom of God. Does this mean that we should neglect the reasonable and daily duties that help sustain us as well as the lives of our family members? Of course not. Surrendering to the benevolence and power of the Kingdom of God however, serves to sharpen your intuition, and thus allows enhancement of your intuition so as to guide you unto your best path in life, the path that is the most personally fulfilling to you.
So how do you go about seeking the Kingdom of God?
Prayer. Go into your inner place and in solitude ask, seek, knock. Ask for guidance from the Divine for any and all situations. After asking, seek the door to which your intuition subsequently directs you. Once reaching that door, gain admittance by knocking until the door is opened. Once inside and you see that your heart’s desire has been granted, then believe and receive with thanksgiving.
Meditation. Every day reserve some minutes to stop everything and just say to the world and everyone in it, “Quiet please”! Then say to your mind that is throwing thoughts around in your head like the wild man of Borneo, “Quiet please”! Then just sit in silence for your designated time and listen. You may be quite surprised at what you will hear. If you find it difficult to stop all the chatter inside your mind, conduct research as to the best way to have your mind be still. One suggestion is either aloud or silently just slowly repeat the phrase “Thank you Father”. Sometimes music can help. If you really want to, you’ll find the best way.
Surrender. Your ego’s job is to protect you and keep you safe based on its knowledge of everything that ever happened to you and everything that you ever learned or observed. Sometimes it gets a bit too bossy and dogmatic. When that happens, just say to it, “please just sit down and relax. I trust God. God has this, so relax”.
Listen. Pay attention to your surroundings. The first human tragedy is that many can hear but do not listen. Be confident yet humble in spirit and your “inner hearing” correspondingly sharpens.
Observe. Pay attention to your surroundings. The second human tragedy is that many look but do not observe. Be confident yet humble in spirit and your “inner vision” correspondingly sharpens.
Follow Through. If you have ever closely watched a pitcher in the game of baseball, you will see that his follow through when he pitches the ball “seals the deal” regarding the success of each pitch. He can be highly skilled in gripping the ball. He can be physically strong and possess great stamina. He can be perfect in his initial approach, called “the wind-up”. If however, the pitcher fails to properly follow through on his pitch (arms, legs, hips, torso), his pitch will be drastically reduced in quality. The pitcher has to do more than know the perfect style and approach for pitching the ball. He has to fully follow through with each pitch that he makes. So it is with your life, with my life, with all lives. Without true and consistent follow through, you will find yourself on life’s dreaded “hamster treadmill”.
Today, stop at some point for a few minutes and ask yourself in the quiet of your mind: “Where are you placing your trust”? Answer your question with raw, uncensored honesty. Nobody will hear you except you. Where you place your true trust in your life determines the tenor and substance of your existence.
Believe. Receive.