American Lawyer has the story (more: AmLaw Daily, ABA Journal). Because, if you asked why the former dean of the shareholder class-action plaintiff’s bar deserved those hundreds of millions in court-ordered fees, you would have been told that society needed to reward his unsurpassed skills at sniffing out securities fraud. Can you imagine how Weiss as a lawyer would have shredded some hapless middleman financial defendant who thought it wasn’t necessary to do due diligence on an investment manager in placing funds because, well, he seemed like a nice guy at the time?
Weiss is in jail now on unrelated charges, of course, but he might make a fun person to name as lead plaintiff in a suit against Madoff.
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Was it possible that Madoff pulled of the largest ponzi scheme in history alone? I think that is unlikely considering how much money was changing hands.
Eventually somebody had to notice that the only money coming in was from investors.
Or were too many people simply blinded by their greed? If that is the case, Madoff’s employees and associates should have noticed that something fishy was going on long before now. Seventeen years is a long time.
http://www.weeklypoint.com/2009/02/06/how-many-people-knew-about-madoff-scandal/
[…] week ago I briefly noted that now-imprisoned securities class action king Mel Weiss appeared on the list of Bernard Madoff […]