SLOW burn Bernie

I've moaned about how slow things are to move against Irish fraudsters when compared to how quick the US authorities moved against Bernie Madoff. His sons blew the whistle in October 2008 and by March 2009 he was serving a life sentence. There's nothing like the immediate threat of jail to uncover any hidden stashes of money. But it seems the US financial watchdogs have not covered themselves in glory. Self-confessed 'Greek geek' Harry Markopolos has written No One Would Listen about his ten year battle to expose Madoff as a fraud. He was pointing the finger long before Madoff was forced to admit he was a conman. Check out this very interesting extract here.

PYRAMID time

Be warned, the pyramids are coming. After years of people getting rich by flipping properties using cheap credit there's suddenly a gap in the market. Money might be tight but there's plenty of people out there with €5,000 burning a hole in their pockets. Ireland last saw a serious spate of pyramid schemes from 2001 until 2005. It's incredible how people can allow themselves be brain-washed by an investment scheme that is insolvent from the start. Also known as Ponzi schemes they use cash from new investors to pay off older investors - but eventually there's too few investors. There was Ignite Leisure in 2005, the Liberty scheme in 2005 and then Women Empowering Women in 2001 (later changed to the Eternal Gifting Circle after a high-profile armed robbery at one group meeting.)
Group 'affinity' is used and exploited by the scam artists. The Fraudsters details one case of a man who was approached because his connections through Alcoholics Anonymous. Often a scheme will centre on a single town or village, like it did in Bandon, County Cork in 2005. They'll be dressed up as something different and whoever is selling it, without being asked, will say: This is not a pyramid scheme.