Ripples to follow. Big ripples.

David Glovin and David Sheer, Bloomberg:

Bernard Madoff, founder and president of a New York firm that invested funds for wealthy individuals, hedge funds and other institutions, was charged with operating what he told employees was a long-running $50 billion Ponzi scheme in what may be one of the largest frauds in history….

“He’s one of the pioneers of modern Wall Street,” said James Angel, an associate business professor at Georgetown University in Washington. Madoff’s firm was among the first to automate market-making…

Madoff was also sued today by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

…

Madoff said he had about $200 million to $300 million left …

Confessed to FBI

Madoff allegedly confessed to FBI agent Theodore Cacioppi on Dec. 11…

The Madoff firm had about $17.1 billion in assets under management as of Nov. 17, according to NASD records. At least 50 percent of its clients were hedge funds, and others included banks and wealthy individuals, according to the records.
…

Bernard Madoff served as vice chairman of the National Association of Securities Dealers, a member of its board of governors, and chairman of its New York region, according to the SEC Web site. He was also a member of Nasdaq Stock Market’s board of governors and its executive committee and served as chairman of its trading committee.

He was chief of the Securities Industry Association’s trading committee in the 1990s and earlier this decade, where he represented brokerage firms in discussions with regulators about new stock-market rules as electronic-trading systems and networks gained prominence.

…

For those who like reading legalese, here’s the complaint.

I don’t know how much of this is covered by the SIPC, but I would bet we are about to see tens of dollars more out of the TARP fund plus frantic short-selling by anyone who thought they had money in Madoff.