By: Jack WaymirecloseAuthor: Jack Waymire Name: Jack Waymire
Email: jack@paladinregistry.com
Site: http://paladinregistry.com
About: Jack writes for the InvestorWatchdog website and Worth magazine. He worked in the financial services industry from 1976 to 2004. For twenty of those years he was the president of a Registered Investment Advisory firm and a Broker/Dealer. Jack is the author of Who's Watching Your Money? The 17 Paladin Principles for Selecting a Financial Advisor and is a co-founder of PaladinRegistry.com.See Authors Posts (87) | August 30, 2009 | Ponzi Schemes, The Regulators

Bernie Madoff’s company was an SEC registered investment advisory firm when he voluntarily admitted he was running an illegal Ponzi scheme. He was not caught by a regulatory agency. In fact, being a regulated company may have helped him rip-off investors. They assumed he was legitimate because he was registered.
Why do so many bad [...]

By: Jack WaymirecloseAuthor: Jack Waymire Name: Jack Waymire
Email: jack@paladinregistry.com
Site: http://paladinregistry.com
About: Jack writes for the InvestorWatchdog website and Worth magazine. He worked in the financial services industry from 1976 to 2004. For twenty of those years he was the president of a Registered Investment Advisory firm and a Broker/Dealer. Jack is the author of Who's Watching Your Money? The 17 Paladin Principles for Selecting a Financial Advisor and is a co-founder of PaladinRegistry.com.See Authors Posts (87) | August 10, 2009 | Ponzi Schemes

Frank Dipascali, the finance chief at Madoff’s defunct investment advisory firm may be helping prosecutors build criminal cases against other participants in the $65 billion Ponzi scheme.
There is no way Madoff perpetrated this massive fraud by himself. He may have been the mastermind, but he had a lot of help. Investigators should be looking in two places for active [...]

By: Jack WaymirecloseAuthor: Jack Waymire Name: Jack Waymire
Email: jack@paladinregistry.com
Site: http://paladinregistry.com
About: Jack writes for the InvestorWatchdog website and Worth magazine. He worked in the financial services industry from 1976 to 2004. For twenty of those years he was the president of a Registered Investment Advisory firm and a Broker/Dealer. Jack is the author of Who's Watching Your Money? The 17 Paladin Principles for Selecting a Financial Advisor and is a co-founder of PaladinRegistry.com.See Authors Posts (87) | July 16, 2009 | Investor Information, Ponzi Schemes

One characteristic of sleazy criminals like Bernie Madoff is their egotistical belief that they are smarter than everyone else. This may explain why Madoff thought his massive Ponzi scheme would go on forever. It also explains how he slept at night without  concern for the financial carnage he was inflicting on thousands of people. I bet he never thought he would spend the [...]

By: Jack WaymirecloseAuthor: Jack Waymire Name: Jack Waymire
Email: jack@InvestorWatchdog.com
Site: http://www.investorwatchdog.com
About: Jack entered the financial services industry as an institutional consultant and later as vice president at Warburg, Paribas, Becker in 1976. From 1983 to 2003 he was the President of Lexington Capital Management and related companies. In December, 2003 John Wiley published his book "Who's Watching Your Money? The 17 Paladin Principles for Selecting a Financial Advisor". In 2004, he founded PaladinRegistry.com, a website that educated investors about financial advisors. A national Registry of pre-screened, five star rated advisors was added to the website later in 2004. In 2009, he founded InvestorWatchdog.com, a website that provides tools and information to investors who use the services of financial planners and financial advisors. Since 2004, Jack has been frequently quoted in the media on topics about financial advisors, Wall Street firms, investment scams, and the financial services industry (BusinessWeek, Forbes, Kiplinger, Washington Post, etc.).See Authors Posts (59) | July 8, 2009 | Illegal Schemes & Scams, Ponzi Schemes

A slideshow from Businesweek.com featuring history’s biggest financial scandals:
 

By: Jack WaymirecloseAuthor: Jack Waymire Name: Jack Waymire
Email: jack@paladinregistry.com
Site: http://paladinregistry.com
About: Jack writes for the InvestorWatchdog website and Worth magazine. He worked in the financial services industry from 1976 to 2004. For twenty of those years he was the president of a Registered Investment Advisory firm and a Broker/Dealer. Jack is the author of Who's Watching Your Money? The 17 Paladin Principles for Selecting a Financial Advisor and is a co-founder of PaladinRegistry.com.See Authors Posts (87) | June 27, 2009 | Illegal Schemes & Scams

Why did 11,000 affluent investors fall victim to Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme?  There are four primary reasons.
The affluent accumulated assets building companies, managing businesses and providing professional services.  They did not make their fortunes investing their assets in the securities markets.  They hire financial professionals to help them, but they don’t know how to screen and select competent, ethical advisors.  
Many of the biggest [...]

By: Jack WaymirecloseAuthor: Jack Waymire Name: Jack Waymire
Email: jack@paladinregistry.com
Site: http://paladinregistry.com
About: Jack writes for the InvestorWatchdog website and Worth magazine. He worked in the financial services industry from 1976 to 2004. For twenty of those years he was the president of a Registered Investment Advisory firm and a Broker/Dealer. Jack is the author of Who's Watching Your Money? The 17 Paladin Principles for Selecting a Financial Advisor and is a co-founder of PaladinRegistry.com.See Authors Posts (87) | June 23, 2009 | Who Can I Trust?

The SEC filed formal charges against Stanley Chais claiming he knowingly raised money for Bernie Madoff’s illegal Ponzi Scheme.  Although Chais claimed to be a financial advisor, there are major differences between Money Finders and ‘real’ financial advisors.
Money Finders are usually slick marketing companies that raise assets for money management firms that may or may not [...]