Bernie Madoff, in 2008 the New York Post called him ”The Most Hated Man in New York.” Why? Because Bernie Madoff organized and directed a $50 billion financial investment empire which was found out, after many decades of operation, to be the largest Ponzi scheme the world had ever seen.
But how did Bernie get away with his schemes for so long in an industry as regulated as the financial investment industry? This answer is simple: No one, not the individual small investors, nor the large banks and investment firms, not even the SEC itself, wanted to change the fact that Madoff Investments was paying steady and reliable returns, even when the volatile stock market would go through its many ups and downs.
The reason? Bernie Madoff being a crook and running a Ponzi scheme was an inconvenient truth that no one wanted to face when all the investment firms using Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities were paying reliable returns to their own investors thanks to their investment with Bernie. Everyone, it seemed, was making money when they invested with Madoff Securities.
Today, in business aviation, single aircraft operators, large multi-aircraft flight departments, even FAR Part 135 certificate holders and aircraft sales and management companies continue to profit despite having to use, and rely on, dysfunctional paper records for an aircraft’s history and proof of its Airworthiness.
This is aviation’s inconvenient truth.
Maintenance, of course, is most negatively…
