Once, a bright young man was born and raised in New York City, USA. This man worked as a lifeguard and a lawn-sprinkler installer. Then out of his savings and a loan from his father-in-law, he founded a stockbroking firm with an intent to earn profits as a market maker in the US stock market.
This man was innovative. He has used ICT to craft an edge as a market maker. In 1992, the Wall Street Journal reported that his firm executed US$ 740 million in average daily volume of stock trades, which equalled 9% of the trades on the New York Stock Exchange. As such, he became extremely successful.
But he wanted more.
This man devised an ‘investment plan’, which promised ‘unusual but consistent’ 10%-20% returns per year from the stock market. But in reality, what happened was a crafty combination of securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, perjury and money laundering. It all came tumbling down in the Global Financial Crisis 2008. In total, he has ripped off 37,000+ people from 136 countries of as much as US$ 65 billion.
In the end, this man was sentenced to 150 years in prison. This man passed on just recently, on 14 April 2021. Who is this man?
He is Bernie Madoff, the mastermind of America’s most prominent investment fraud.
So, is the love of money the root of all evil? Does money alone make the world go round?
In this webinar, I have invited Ms Linnet Lee, CEO of FPAM, to share a topic on ethics, moralities, and principles as we manage our finances. Some of the issues that we covered:
- What would you do with RM 1 million today?
- How does the love of money impact our behaviour and a sense of morality?
- Potential Examples and Case Studies of Money vs Morality.
- Could we win the financial game in Malaysia solely by playing by the book?
