There's a developing story around Sino-Forest Corporation (TSX: TRE).

[randomness]

Muddy Waters Research accuses it of being a "a multi-billion dollar ponzi scheme", "accompanied by substantial theft".

John Hempton observes:

There is a cottage industry in doing forensic analysis of Chinese frauds. I have analysed many and put only a smattering on the blog.

But I have never seen anything this big or this amazing.

Read the report. I am in awe.

Felix Salmon explains:

What’s certain is that in the wake of all this, either Sino-Forest or Muddy Waters is going to lose all credibility: one of them is a multi-million-dollar fraud. Muddy Waters is short Sino-Forest, of course. If Sino-Forest turns out to be a slightly dodgy Chinese forestry company and not a Ponzi scheme, you can be sure that Muddy Waters has been covering its short all day and has banked a huge amount of money by putting out extremely misleading material. On the other hand, if Muddy Waters is right, then Sino-Forest is toast.

Comments

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Many years ago, there was a guy in Hollywood selling Ponzi investments to movie stars. When it went bang, an incredible amount of money was unaccounted for. I heard nothing more about it, so I assume that he settled in return for not being prosecuted, and keeping enough of the loot to retire comfortably. So at least that guy had the end-game planned out.

I suspect Madoff's problem was that what he really wanted wasn't the money but the status. If you want the status of being a bigwig, there is no exit strategy.