Bernard L. Madoff, a legendary trader who’s towered over Wall Street for nearly 50 years, was arrested by federal agents Thursday and charged with running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme—perhaps the biggest fraud in Wall Street’s history. The former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market reportedly told colleagues on Wednesday that his investment advisory business was "all just one big lie” that was “basically, a giant Ponzi scheme.” According to one official for the SEC, the case involved “a stunning fraud that appears to be of epic proportions.” Of more than $17 billion in assets under management by Madoff’s firm at the beginning of 2008, all is missing, according to the SEC. Madoff's investment advisory business had "deceived investors by operating a securities business in which he traded and lost investor money, and then paid certain investors purported returns on investment with the principal received from other, different investors, which resulted in losses of approximately billions of dollars,” according to the FBI.
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