Can you really blame the SEC for Madoff scam?

January 6, 2009 | By Jim Kim

The SEC is taking some massive punches for its failure to detect the massive Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme, even after regulators probed the firm no less than eight times over 16 years, according to one WSJ report.

But columnist Allan Sloan suggests that the system is set up this way: "You're likely to get caught if you run a few inches outside the baseline, because regulators are set up to catch that. But run so far out that you're playing on a whole different ball field? You can get away with that if you're enough of a financiopath, and your luck holds."

Still, it rankles people that after all the tips and aroused suspicions the firm was always cleared. Maybe its true that a dedicated con is less likely to be detected than a mere number-fudger. Do you agree?

For more:
- here's the column via Fortune