Bernard Madoff, the Mafia, and Naked Short Selling

[Jan Klimkowski]

Charles Gasparino (citing “speculation” from investigators) reported last week on CNBC that the Russian Mafia might have been partners in Madoff’s larcenous fund business. Or perhaps the Mob had an even greater interest in Madoff’s market making operation, as some of our sources have told us in recent weeks.

Magda - Gasbag is in the same league as Cramer et al.

Every one of those crooks should be shot.

In my BBC2 Money Programme Special, "The Great Dot.Con", first broadcast in March 2001, almost a year before America's "60 Minutes" reported on the lies of the dotcom bubble, we interviewed then Bloomberg financial news anchor, Dylan Ratigan. Dylan was entirely honest about the way financial news channels - from Bloomberg to CNN to CNBC etc etc - work:

Dylan Ratigan, Presenter Bloomberg TV :

The bottom line is that a lot of people have made a lot of money in the stock market in America in the past 10 years. The intention and the promotion that was given to the coverage of this event was equivalent in many ways to a large sporting event. In other words I’m going to tune in every day to find out just how much more money I’ve made on whatever this particular little internet stock may be.

Bloomberg TV – Dylan Ratigan :

If an analyst makes an upgrade on a stock and than goes out on the television network or on a news wire and says they did an upgrade, they are going to drive the stock higher.


BBC Reporter :

And you can watch that happening ?


Dylan Ratigan :

Sure , you can literally sit there with an intern day chart . Again, whether it is on TV or anywhere, when you see a piece of news cross, whether it is an analyst upgrade or an earnings report, you can most certainly watch the stock change as before your eyes.

In a clip we didn't use, Dylan likened the ringing of the opening bell on Wall Street to the "off" in a horse race. The anchor's job was to communicate that sense of adrenaline rush to the small investor viewers at home. Because of business television, American bars were full of ordinary folk talking about share prices rather than football results.

Inevitably, the casino screwed the ordinary folk.

So, Gasbag speaks with forked tongue.

Russian Mafia? Niet.

I'll hazard a bunch of mobsters flying executive jets between Wall Street, Texas, Caribbean tax havens and Paraguay.

:bandit: