Terrific

I enjoyed it finished in 1 day. The Audio mixing was terrible. I've heard other podcasts that didn't have such an incredible story to tell, but was so well put together.

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An interesting listen but short on detail

Steve Fishman’s six-part audio series, Ponzi Supernova, profiles the fraudster Bernie Madoff. Madoff is currently serving a federal prison sentence. He is:
- the former non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market,
- the confessed operator of the largest Ponzi scheme in world history, and
- the founder of the largest financial fraud in U.S. history.

Prosecutors estimated the fraud to be worth $64.8 billion. They based this on the amounts in the accounts of Madoff's 4,800 clients as of November 30, 2008.

The series shows Madoff’s refusal to take responsibility, his lack of regrets and the delusions he seems to still have. This is even after the death of business associates and his own family. It contains three hours of interviews with him. But, it is comforting to note that about half of Madoff’s investors still ended up in the black.

The series also includes supporting material from an ex-FBI investigator, colleagues and people affected by Madoff.

All in all, an interesting listen but short on detail.

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1 person found this helpful

OK, bit of a learning curve for me

I quite liked this though I think it assumes a lot of knowledge on the listener's part. For instance, I didn't think it gave enough background about the details of the scam involved (I had to google what a Ponzi scheme was for instance, as I didn't feel the programme gave me that). And the documentary assumes that you know Madoff is a world famous crook and have some knowledge about him but I have to confess I had to Google who he even was too! A general sense of experiencing the sequel of something without any knowledge of the original.

Otherwise there's quite a lot of stuff to enjoy here. Some of the details are very amusing (crooked programmers wanting to be paid in diamonds for example). Sound quality is uneven. Kept me just about interested enough to finish but probably wouldn't listen again.

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6 people found this helpful

interesting and informative

the sceptics and pessimistics amongst us won't be surprised by the conclusions this series draws, nevertheless it is well structured and informative. the author is an excellent researcher and has constructed a coherent narrative.

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1 person found this helpful

Great Story

Great story really insightful to the whole trading world and to the ponzi scheme, wish it was longer.

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2 people found this helpful

An Insight to Raise the Blood Pressure!

This is a fairly brief insight into one of the world's biggest financial scandals. Steve Fishman shows how he gained significant people access to get at least part way under the covers of this incredible story. It's the kind of plot that just beggars belief and yet was somehow allowed to happen. I liked the way that while Fishman had to work very hard to gain the trust of key witnesses he did not allow himself to get sucked into their way of thinking and presented his own conclusions with considerable clarity.

There is a chilling message towards the end of the series about the lack of integrity that this revealed in the world's most powerful financial institutions including ways in which some of the safeguards in the system have actually been relaxed as a part of the fallout. It's more in the growing mountain of evidence demonstrating how big business especially within the financial sector is simply not working for anyone but a tiny minority.

It's worth listening to but it may well raise the blood pressure when you realise just how much collusion appears to have taken place to allow an outlandish con-man to bring financial pain to millions while many of the richest still retain fortunes made as a result.

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9 people found this helpful

Fantastic story and great presentation. G

Great presenters clarifying a tangled and fascinating story. Highly recommended it got me through 3 hours of privet trimming.

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1 person found this helpful

More detail required to keep me engaged

Didn't really engage me properly. I felt it should have had more detail in exactly how the scam worked. It also seemed to end just as it was getting going.

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2 people found this helpful

Jaw-dropping

OK, I could've done without some of the wacky audio effects but the content and contributors were brilliant. Frightening too when you think it could happen again and how hard it is to recover the money from those who facilitated and profited from what they almost certainly knew was a fraud.

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1 person found this helpful

Promises more than it delivers.

A noisy and overlong pod-umentary that keeps reassuring the listener how deep it is going to go "down the rabbit hole", only to not go very deep at all. Spends more time back-splaining and paraphrasing than revealing anything new. Nevertheless, an enjoyable if ultimately simplistic romp through an already thoroughly documented case.

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1 person found this helpful