Bernard Madoff, the biggest solo scam artist in history

I have been reading about Madoff and how he screwed thousands of investors out of $50bn. Now my question is: Is he a terrible trader who would raise money and lose it and pretend to make more or is he just a thief with billions in a secret bank account? There are so many things in this story that do not make sense to me:

-why did not more investors find out what some found out and that is that his auditors were a nonexistent accountant in Brooklyn. $50bn invested and nobody investigated him before?

-why is the penalty for his crime only $5m in a fine and 20 years? Can´t the government take away all of his net worth and distribute it among his creditors?

-how could he get away with paying $300 million in bonuses before giving himself up to the police? Why can´t the government get that money back?

-did he really have no partners in crime?

And there´s more and more. I just can´t believe the amounts involved. The financial world is seriously rotten. On my side I only want to own bonds and shares directly and in a very diversified portfolio in different countries and currencies.

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