On December 11, 2008, the financial world was in a panic as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced the arrest of Bernard L. Madoff of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLC, for orchestrating a $65 billion Ponzi scheme. An investigation took place into Madoff's practices, and as a result, it was revealed the SEC failed to catch Madoff years earlier as a result of its business practices. After this became known, the SEC faced reputational harm. This qualitative analysis seeks to discover through identification and analysis of themes and sub-themes of response strategies, the extent to which the SEC applied Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) in its crisis response, in order to examine SCCT's merit as a theory in government crisis communication research. This study also offers additional response strategies imposed by the SEC to suggest further expansion of SCCT in a government context. / Master of Arts / On December 11, 2008, Bernard L. Madoff, of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLC, was charged by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for his role in a $65 billion fraudulent scheme. During an investigation into Madoff’s business practices, it was revealed that the SEC overlooked many red flags that could have caught Madoff years earlier. As a result, the SEC faced reputational harm. This study examined the SEC’s crisis response to the public following the news of Madoff’s arrest by applying a crisis communication theory to discover “best practices” for government agencies when dealing with a preventable crisis. This study also offers suggestions to further expand crisis communication research and crisis response strategies in a government communication setting.

Memoria (licenciado en ciencias jurídicas y sociales) / En la investigación titulada “Concurso de delitos y problemas de determinación de la pena en las estafas “masivas”: lecciones de los casos “La Polar”, “Fermex” y “Madoff” frente a la dogmática penal”, se busca determinar la suficiencia de las normas de concurso de delitos aplicables a casos de estafas o fraudes masivos, a través de un análisis teórico y práctico. El trabajo se divide en cuatro capítulos. En el primer capítulo se exponen los estudios que la doctrina ha hecho del concurso de delitos, estudiando, en particular, el concurso real, ideal, medial y aparente, además del delito “continuado” y el delito “masa”. En el segundo capítulo, se expone la teoría del delito de estafa, su concepto, elementos típicos, bien jurídico protegido y tratamiento penal. En el tercer capítulo, se analizan las llamadas “estafas masivas” o “fraudes colectivos”, sus elementos típicos, su necesidad de cautela, los tipos más comunes de defraudaciones colectivas (estafas “piramidales” y estafas cometidas por medios informáticos o electrónicos), y los criterios concursales que permiten determinar la pena en este tipo de delitos. En el cuarto capítulo, se analizan los hechos y los aspectos jurídicos de los casos de estudio: primero, el caso “La Polar”, luego el caso “Fermex/Labomax” y finalmente el caso “Madoff”. Se concluye la investigación señalando la insuficiencia de las normas actuales y algunas propuestas para mejorar la legislación vigente

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T21:00:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 4 Fernanda Weber Bratz.pdf.jpg: 2724 bytes, checksum: c0c87b16db83da08de690243222506e3 (MD5) Fernanda Weber Bratz.pdf.txt: 80488 bytes, checksum: d3052735b44fc019e07ff3f08d19c534 (MD5) license.txt: 4712 bytes, checksum: 4dea6f7333914d9740702a2deb2db217 (MD5) Fernanda Weber Bratz.pdf: 580478 bytes, checksum: 12eac7dbec36c80d173c620b20485dab (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-08-03T00:00:00Z / In 2008, as the global economic crisis continue devastating the markets a new scandal bursts. The funds managed by Bernard Madoff collapsed and were based on a fraud. Using the split strike conversion, strategy Madoff claimed to use in his portfolios, a comparative study was made, when analyzing the strategy and the returns of some of the hedge funds in Brazil. The period of the analysis was from 2003 to 2008. Using some of the lessons from the fraud the Brazilian legislation was analyzed. This work concludes that the strategy that Madoff claimed to be the ration behind his high profitability and low volatility does not provide interesting results. Regarding the Brazilian legislation this work concluded that Ponzi schemes are not likely to occur within the regulated environment. / Em 2008, com a crise econômica mundial devastando os mercados, um novo escândalo tornou-se público. Os fundos geridos por Bernard Madoff colapsaram e estavam baseados em uma fraude. Utilizando o 'split strike conversion',estratégia que Madoff afirmava utilizar no seu portfólio, foi feito um estudo comparativo entre essa e os retornos de alguns hedge funds do mercado do Brasil. O período de análise foi de 2003 a 2008. A partir de algumas lições desse colapso na indústria de fundos mundial, foi analisada a legislação brasileira. Concluiu-se com esse trabalho que a estratégia que o Madoff vendia como o alicerce para sua rentabilidade elevada e baixa volatilidade não apresenta resultados suficientemente interessante. Com relação à legislação brasileira concluiu-se que esta é bastante rígida a ponto de não favorecer que esquemas com o de Madoff ocorram dentro do ambiente regulado.