The Great American Economic Meltdown (Part 2)

This article, the second of two parts, is adapted from a chapter in “Readings in White Collar Crime,” Second Edition, from David Shichor et al. (Long Grove, Ill.: Waveland Press Inc., forthcoming). Reprinted by permission of Waveland Press Inc. All rights reserved.

The 2008 corporate scandals at Bear Stearns, Countrywide, Lehman Brothers, AIG, and others that led to the American economic meltdown weren’t all based on white-collar crime. However, the study of white-collar crime should focus not only on violations of the letter of the law, but also on the acts by those in positions of power who, in their occupational roles, seriously harm others. 

This article concentrates on two Ponzi cases – the Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities scheme and the alleged Stanford Financial Group fraud – which show the underbelly of corporate corruption during the recent economic meltdown.