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Bernie Madoff’s Essential Man
DiPascali made a phone call, and his staff quickly put together a fake ledger on a computer to reflect the billions of shares the accounts in question supposedly held. But the document, literally hot off the office printer, needed its recent origin disguised. As DiPascali later told the story, he “did a little soft shoe” and chatted to distract the auditor in a conference room while his staff quickly cooled the newly minted ledger in an office refrigerator, then tossed it around “like a medicine ball” to give it the patina of age and hard use. DiPascali handed it over, and the auditor left, satisfied.
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Image: Credit Elizabeth Williams/Associated Press
Questioning the Seaworthiness of Bond Funds
Investors have embraced bond mutual funds and exchange-traded funds as sound and solid places to keep their money. But that growing popularity rings alarm bells with some regulators, who worry that these same vehicles could become sources of instability in a future market crisis.
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Money Funds Remain Haunted by Fears of ‘Breaking the Buck’
In 2008, the share price of one fund fell below a dollar, “breaking the buck,” in Wall Street jargon. That set off a panic among some institutional investors and required the government to create a temporary insurance program.
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Andrew Madoff, Who Told of His Father’s Swindle, Dies at 48
Andrew H. Madoff, the last surviving son of the convicted swindler Bernard L. Madoff, died on Wednesday in a Manhattan hospital, where he had been undergoing treatment for cancer. He was 48.
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Image: Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Broken Trust in God’s Country
In eastern Ohio, Amish and Mennonite communities grapple with questions of faith and finance as a neighbor stands accused of a Ponzi scheme.
Money Funds Could Face More Changes
Regulators and mutual fund executives differ on the stability of money market funds since the financial crisis. The S.E.C. is expected to soon propose more changes in the industry.
The Lasting Shadow of Bernie Madoff
“I made the tragic mistake of trying to change the way money was managed and was successful at the start, but lost my way after a while and refused to admit that I failed.”
— Bernard L. Madoff, in an e-mail on Oct. 11, 2011