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A Maddoff Lesson–If You Are Doing Business, Then Do Business Research

There is an increasing belief that Bernard Madoff did not act alone when he embezzled around $50 Billion in his now infamous Ponzi Scheme.   I don’t think it takes Sherlock Holmes to figue that out, but this reality does appear to be a slow dawning.   But then it was a slow dawning reality to some folks that the fabulous Madoff investment model was unworkable and mythical.  People invested, believing in the the magic of the former head of NASDAQ.

Worse still, are the business managers who took their clients’ money and turned it all over to Madoff, who in turn ripped off or socked it away in secret offshore accounts.   We will have to see how much money was hidden off shore.   The investigation, like the two lovers in the treacly romance song of the seventies, has only just begun.

Whether these business managers were either incompetent by not performing due dligigence remains to be seen.   Were they in collusion with Madoff?  We shall see.   But what we know already is that any business manager who put all of his clients proverbial eggs in one basket wasn’t really doing his job.   There is a matter of diversification and protecting parts of the portfolio with secure investments.

So what does all this mean to those of us who didn’t invest with Bernard Madoff?   Well, for one thing there is the reality that thievery and chicanery in one form or another occurs every day.   It happens for larger amounts and smaller amounts.   In business, people retain your services and then don’t pay you.   Or you may enter a ventureship and find that the other part is more than remiss in investing his money.   He is stealing yours.

So when you are doing business, do business research.   Conduct business credit reports on the companies you are considering as business partners.   Run background checks on the key executives.   Do your due diligence.  Look over your reports, and then review them again.

These are dicey times out there.  A lousy economy.   In these times, many businesses, or the people who run them,  will make desperate and stupid moves.  You could be their victim.   Check them out before you invest your money.

By Gordon Basichis

Gordon Basichis is the Co-Founder of Corra Group, specializing in pre-employment background checks and corporate research. He has been a marketing and media executive and has worked in the entertainment industry, the financial, health care and technology sectors. He is the author of the best selling Beautiful Bad Girl, The Vicki Morgan Story, a non-fiction novel that helped define exotic sexuality in the late twentieth century. He is the author of the Constant Travellers and has recently completed a new book, The Guys Who Spied for China, dealing with Chinese Espionage in the United States. He has been a journalist for several newspapers and is a screenwriter and producer.