One and a half billion Australian dollars have been lost in a Ponzi fraud scheme. Financial regulators are to be overhauled.

Bernard Madoff, a quiet force on Wall Street for decades, was  arrested and charged on Thursday with allegedly running a $50 billion “Ponzi scheme” in what may rank among the biggest  fraud cases ever. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article7769.html

A Ponzi scheme is a swindle offering unusually high returns, with early investors paid off with money from later investors. Ponzi was a ganster from the 1930’s era.

Madoff told senior employees of his firm on Wednesday that “it’s all just one big lie” and that it was “basically, a giant Ponzi scheme,” with estimated investor losses of about $50 billion, according to the U.S. Attorney’s criminal complaint against him.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081212/bs_nm/us_madoff_arrest

The $50 billion allegedly lost would make the hedge fund one of the biggest frauds in history. When former energy trading giant Enron filed for bankruptcy in 2001, one of the largest at the time, it had $63.4 billion in assets.

Coober Pedy Regional Times