Bernie Madoff, who runs a firm that bears his name, has been a fixture on Wall Street for half a century. To many, he was something of a legend; he was a founder of the Nasdaq and remains a director. But in recent years, the 70-year-old harbored a huge secret: The investment firm he started in the wake of the move toward decimalization--which made profits scarce for market makers--was fraud. For whatever reason, he started unburdening himself to shocked employees, according to the New York Times, fessing up about paying old clients with new investment funds. It was a classic Ponzi scheme. He also fessed up about the investment firm being essentially worthless. Investigators say the losses could be in the $50 billion range. He was arrested this week. Whew!   

For more:
- here's the New York Times article

Related Articles:
Fraud news from FierceFinance