The Wall Street Journal's December 15 front page headlined an article by Peter Lattman and Aaron Luchetti, which revealed:

"The scandal reverberated around the world, with banks including Spain's Grupo Santander and France's BNP Paribas saying on Sunday that their clients and shareholders together face billions of Euros of losses.

"Monday morning in Tokyo, Norura Holdings Inc. said its exposure to investments with Mr. Madoff totaled 27.5 billion yen ($302 million).  A spokesman described the firm's potential losses as `limited'."

Guards are guarding Madoff's midtown Manhattan office 24 hours a day.  FBI investigators are there along with Securities and Exchange Commission guards.  They are attempting to identify any remaining assets.

No wonder Ronald Reagan's mantra "Get the government off people's back" became such a big hit with certain criminally inclined characters.

Of course, this type could not function if government supervision analyzed and scrutinized what they were up to.

Paul Kane and Ben Pershing's Washington Post story that appeared in the Seattle Time June 13 contained the following:

HOUSE REPUBLICANS ACCUSE EX-TREASURER OF EMBEZZLEMENT