Digging for Disclosure: Tactics for Protecting Your Firm’s Assets from Swindlers, Scammers, and Imposters

19. Testing, Testing

Bernie Madoff. Robert Allen Stanford. Danny Pang. From the fall of 2008 through the winter of 2009, it seemed every month another scandal was uncovered that profiled how well known businessmen had victimized their clients, leaving them with nothing but a television screen to watch the scam and their bank accounts unravel. While investors were shocked, they began scratching their heads wondering how this unprecedented level of graft had come to be. Were there any warning signs? Could these massive schemes have been avoided?

Using the methodology we have discussed throughout the book, we conducted investigative research regarding Madoff, Stanford, and Pang to see if we would have come up with any red flags had we done background ...