Madoff May Not Have Made Trades

A federal agency that regulates brokerage firms says there is no record of Madoff's investment funds placing trades through his brokerage operation. That leaves only two options - either he was placing trades only through other firms, which would be highly unusual, or he was not placing any trades.

"There was no evidence of the Madoff broker-dealer executing trades for the [Madoff] investment adviser," said Herb Perone, spokesman for the regulatory group, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. A broker-dealer is any firm that buys and sells securities.

FINRA and its predecessor, the National Association of Securities Dealers, has been examining the records of Madoff's broker-dealer operation, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, every two years since the firm started in 1960. The last exam was in 2007, Perone said.

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http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/01/15/madoff_might_not_have_made_any_trades/