Probe Finds that SEC Screwed up 5 Times in Madoff Case

I hope these same people are not still trying to enforce securities laws at the SEC.

A summary of a report by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Inspector General, released by the SEC, described five investigations the SEC launched into Madoff's business because of complaints dating to 1992, and said "a thorough and competent investigation or examination was never performed."

SEC examiners caught Madoff in contradictions about his investment business but failed to dig deeper for the truth, the inspector found. At one point, the SEC's enforcement staff "caught Madoff in lies and misrepresentations, but failed to follow up" and accepted his explanations.

So they had been investigating this guy 5 separate times for 16 years and came up with no dirt? The funny thing is if not for the credit crisis they still might not have caught Madoff at all. He could have kept his Ponzi scheme going by going to the debt markets in order to keep paying investors while he raked in more people to fleece.