Commodities watchdog warns of ‘Ponzimonium’

[billyoc]

US federal regulators have warned of a “rampant Ponzimonium” as they disclosed they are investigating “hundreds” of possible scams in the aftermath of the $50bn fraud allegedly perpetrated by Bernard Madoff.

Bart Chilton, a commissioner at the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, the US regulator, said the watchdog was “seeing more of these scams than ever before” in commodities and other futures markets.

Mr Chilton said the CFTC, which patrol commodities and financial futures markets such as derivatives on stocks and foreign exchange, was investigating “hundreds of individuals and entities, many of which were related to Ponzi scams”.

The CFTC has filed charges against 15 alleged Ponzi schemes so far this year, compared with 13 during the whole of 2008. If the rate were sustained, the regulator could end the year filling more than 60 cases, officials said.

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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fd01b70c-1584-11de-b9a9-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

[TWiley]

1. ahh .... the glory of deregulation once again.

To deregulate usually equals decriminalize. This can be done either by changing the laws which make an activity illegal, or by simply ignoring it by refusing to prosecute.

The effects from this republican wet-dream as realized by bush-cheney will be felt for decades

[FreakinDJ]

2. Good Answer - move to the head of the class

how we allowed them to Frame to debate as "Deregulate" rather then "Decriminalize" I'll never know

[KharmaTrain]

3. Madoff Was Not Alone...Little Reported On The Others

Several years ago, I was asked to take a "risk assessment profile"...a test to see how much tolerance I had to throwing money into what I was told was "more aggressive" types of investing. I was shown prospectus' from funds that bragged about their high returns...10, 15, 20% per year and how these funds had performed at this level for years. It was tempting as hell...and surely if I were a gambler (which I'm not) I would have jumped at putting some money in those "high yield vehicles" (more like a race car heading for a wall). I just could feel there wasn't something quite right with these funds...even when the market fell in 2000-2001, these high flyers defied gravity...there had to be "creative financing" at work here. A big red flag!

One person who looks just as slimy as Madoff is Alan Sanford...an offshore banking king (well he bought himself the title "sir"), or there was the story about a broker from Indiana who attempted to fake his death in a plane crash and was later arrested after bailing out...or the other one who faked jumping off a New Jersey turnpike bridge but also tried to go on the lam. The money was just too good...too good for the "smartest guys in the room".