Legendary Wall Street investor Bernie Madoff walked into court today wearing his signature long, black coat as he stood to hear his sentence for running the largest Ponzi scheme ever. $65 billion in investors’ assets was lost in what Messer Madoff called exclusively his own doing. He stood unemotional before the judge. He did not seem remorseful nor afraid, after all he himself knew this day would eventually come as he acknowledged after his arrest. Madoff was sentenced to 150 years.

But death in prison brings little consolation for those whom lost everything. Many at the 250 seat packed courtroom at least wanted some information as to how Madoff managed to run his scheme for so long. But any comfort that may have been gained from that was eluded as Madoff divulged no detail as he spoke for five minutes about his guilt. And there will no real ability for the clients to recoup their loss.

Life savings and entire investment banks were lost in the Madoff scheme. Madoff knew this day would come, but why did it take so long? He himself always figured that the federal government would catch him one day, but as they years went on he became astounded that they never did. In the end, Madoff turned himself in right before his Ponzi scheme was about to implode due to the lack of incoming funds needed to run it. It was the recession, not the SEC that finally caught with Madoff.

The main reason no one ever questioned Madoff was that he was so reputable. A former president of the Nasdaq, he advised the government on finances and made his clients feel exclusive. Madoff often turned down potential clients. His clients never asked questions because they were in a special club with an experience hand and to question Madoff would be almost rude as if question Coke Cola about its secret recipe. And as long as their returns kept showing 10% why was there a need for questioning?
The main rule of investment is to never put one’s eggs all in one basket and to inspect everything, even your winning portfolio. Investing is not about blind faith, it is about strategy.

The final question that needs to be asked to Madoff is: why? Why would a man already so wealthy and so respected risk everything for the thrill of running a scheme that did not even further enrich Madoff? Madoff calls it “an error in judgment.” Some error and for quite some time. In the end, Madoff probably got great joy from knowing that he was deceiving everyone.

A deception worth $65 billion.