It’s hard to believe that a Ponzi scheme as massive as the one perpetrated by Bernard Madoff got by anyone. Surely he was the most clever criminal alive, and was ingenious at hiding his fraud. There couldn’t have been any signs of the scam he was running. Or were there?

It turns out there were plenty of red flags pointing squarely at the scheme Madoff was running. It was clear years ago to Harry Markopolos, the author of “No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller.”Markopolos was the whistleblower who went to the Securities and Exchange Commission on several occasions with his suspicions about Bernie Madoff. But he wasn’t an investment expert who was “just jealous” of Madoff’s apparent success in generating high earnings for his clients quarter after quarter. He was a numbers wizard who had concrete proof the Madoff’s “investment strategy” couldn’t be anything like what he (or others) said it was.

Charles Ponzi

How do you know if you’re considering investing in a Ponzi scheme? The promoters will never come out and tell you they are running a pyramid scheme, so the investors have to be smart enough to recognize them on their own. The good news is it is easy to spot a Ponzi scheme.

Now I don’t mean that it’s easy to prove in a court of law that something is a Ponzi scheme. In a civil or criminal case, there are certain standards of proof that need to be met. But you’re not a court. You’re simply an investor. Whether you have $10,000 to invest or $10 million to invest, your money is probably pretty important to you.

It has become commonplace to hear news stories of Ponzi schemes being uncovered. Investment scams and Ponzi schemes are all too common. Investors are lured in with promises of high returns. People in or nearing retirement find these investments enticing, especially as their retirement funds in the stock market have taken many hits in the last few years.

As I wrote in my book Expert Fraud Investigation: A Step-by-Step Guide, investors are becoming victims of these scams despite the proliferation of information available about phony investment schemes and the dire warnings given regularly by news reporters.  Perpetrators of investment schemes dream up stories explaining their unusually high rates of return on money, and get high net worth people to invest with them. Often these people are investing their entire savings with scammers.

Guest Post by Brian Mahany

Here is a new twist. A hedge fund sues an accounting firm for its failure to uncover a Ponzi scheme operated by one of the hedge fund’s traders. That might sound farfetched, but its not. New York accounting firm Rothstein Kass was sued by two hedge fund managers in San Francisco Superior Court after the fund lost millions of dollars to one of its traders who was allegedly running a Ponzi scheme.

The plaintiffs in the case, two hedge fund managers from Nevada based Paron Capital, claim that Rothstein Kass was hired to verify the trading results from one of their traders. They claim the accountants were specifically hired to perform due diligence and insure the trader was not a fraudster. The accountants, however, say they did nothing wrong and were never asked to verify the trader’s alleged 20% rate of return.

The big buzz this week is an article in Rolling Stone regarding the SEC’s policy of destroying documents related to Matters Under Investigation (MUIs) which do not result in any agency action being taken.

At first blush, it may appear to be some sort of cover up, and that’s exactly what Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi wants you to think. Under further scrutiny, however, it appears that nothing improper is being done. All smoke, and no fire.

More than two years ago, I mentioned here a news story about a Ponzi scheme called Tri Energy Inc. The Securities and Exchange Commission first took action against the company in 2005:

The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday obtained a temporary restraining order, an asset freeze, and other emergency relief, in a civil action filed against several individuals and entities alleged to be perpetrating an ongoing affinity fraud and Ponzi scheme. According to the Complaint, defendants have defrauded hundreds of investors of over $12 million by promising returns of 100% or more within 60 days. The Complaint alleges that defendants have been telling investors that these extraordinary profits were to be generated in part by helping an unnamed Saudi Arabian prince move gold from Israel through Luxembourg to the United Arab Emirates. In reality, according to the Complaint, although some money has been paid out to investors, these funds appear to have come from new investor money, and substantial amounts of investor funds have been transferred to bank accounts controlled by the proposed defendants and relief defendants.

As if uncovering more than $1.8 billion in frauds hasn’t been enough, Barry Minkow (famous for his ZZZZ Best Carpet Cleaning fraud for which he did 8 years in prison) has just busted another fraudster who was running a Ponzi scheme.

Dow Jones Newswire reports:

All the talk about Bernie Madoff and others has everyone thinking about Ponzi schemes. Have you invested in a potential Ponzi? It’s only natural to be worried, and in my opinion, investors haven’t been skeptical enough.

How would you spot a Ponzi scheme? My latest book, Expert Fraud Investigation: A Step-by-Step Guide details some questions you should ask yourself about the investment:

As our friend Bernard Madoff waits around for the wheels of justice to move in his “alleged” $50 billion Ponzi scheme… he’s been a busy boy.

No, he’s not sitting in jail, where a fraudster of his magnitude deserves to be. Instead, he was allowed to post a $10 million bond, and is nice and cozy in his $7 million Manhattan apartment. What a hardship!

If you watch television, read the newspaper, or surf news sites, you’re sure to have hears about the $50 billion Ponzi scheme masterminded by Bernard Madoff.

The $50 billion in losses is merely an estimate. Some experts (like me) think that the actual losses will be much higher.

Stockbroker Fraud Blog discusses several options victims have for recovery:

• Securities Industry Protection Corporation (SIPC) could provide up to $500,000 per account. (Although I think the customers of the “investment advisory” business which is allegedly where the Ponzi scheme occurred won’t qualify. Only regular brokerage accounts would qualify. And fraud doesn’t qualify either, only unauthorized trading or theft. It will be interesting to see how this one pans out.)
• Victims could go after Madoff personally, seeking to get their hands on his personal or company assets.
• There may be third parties that could be liable to the victims.
• Victims might be able to get some money back from the IRS for taxes paid on phantom capital gains in prior years. There’s also a possibility of claiming a theft loss on tax returns.

So there is some potential recovery for victims, but that wouldn’t make me feel all that good, however. Investors are sure to lose money no matter how you slice it. Now they’re waiting to see how much they will lose.

I talked about this fraud and Ponzi schemes in general on CNBC’s On the Money last night. Check out the videos here.