Overview

When Bernard Madoff, the former chairman of the Nasdaq and sole owner of a broker dealer/investment adviser, summoned his two trader sons to his office in early December, he had good news for them. He was going to give them a bonus.

When his sons asked why bonuses were being paid earlier than was customary, Madoff told them that he did not want to discuss the matter in his office and invited them to his apartment. There, he allegedly admitted that he had traded and lost investors’ money and paid certain investors bogus returns with the principal he had received from new investors.