Madoff had not been investing the money he was trusted with but he was using it to pay returns to other investors. Millions of people and thousands of hedge funds around the globe were affected when Madoff's Ponzi scheme was disclosed. It is hard to fathom that such a massive scam could run for decades with so much success and the only person responsible was Madoff himself. Some other people must have had some inkling of what was going on especially the auditors. Christopher Miller, chief executive of London hedge fund ratings agency Allenbridge Hedgeinfo, agrees that Madoff was not alone in running this Ponzi scheme: "Some very big investor names are involved in this. The scheme could...

Some of the world's biggest hedge funds have been hit by this. There will be a monumental impact for the hedge fund industry, it could be larger then Enron." (Carrey, 2008) The case has however proved that business scams did not end with Enron. People who thought auditing practices would improve and regulations would get stricter received a rude shock when Bernie Madoff ran off with their hard earned money.
Reference

John Carrey. "Bernie Madoff: Bigger than Enron." Business Insider. Accessed online 23rd July 2009 http://www.businessinsider.com/2008/12/bernie-madoff-bigger-than-enron