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Dec. 11, 2008: Bernard Madoff is arrested after telling senior employes that his investment company was “basically, a giant Ponzi scheme,” and he had “absolutely nothing.” Media reports later identified the employees as his sons, Mark and Andrew.

Dec. 12, 2008: Losses from Madoff’s scheme are estimated to top $50 billion by his own account. Authorities would later put the loss at $20 billion, making it the biggest investment fraud in U.S. history.

Dec. 23, 2008: French investor Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet is found dead after committing suicide after he discovered that he had lost his entire savings, and his clients’ money, to Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.

March 12, 2009: Bernard Madoff pleads guilty to 11 charges, including fraud, perjury and money laundering. He gets a prison sentence of 150 years. The judge jails him immediately after the plea.

March 17, 2009: Federal prosecutors tell a judge they want to seize jewelry, business interests and more than $30 million from Madoff’s relatives, including loans Madoff made to his sons, Mark and Andrew.

June 29, 2009: Bernard Madoff’s wife, Ruth Madoff, breaks her silence and publicly says she was among the victims of her husband’s deceit. She said he “stunned us all with his confession and is responsible for this terrible situation in which so many now find themselves.”

July 2, 2009: Federal marshals force Ruth Madoff out of the $7 million Manhattan penthouse where she and Bernard Madoff lived.

July 14, 2009: Bernard Madoff arrives at prison in North Carolina to serve his 150-year sentence easy payday loans.

Aug. 3, 2009: Ruth Madoff is ordered to report expenses above $100 to a trustee appointed to locate and liquidate Madoff’s assets to pay back thousands of burned customers.

Oct. 2, 2009: Court-appointed trustee Irving Picard sues Bernard Madoff’s family members in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, claiming they used the family business as a “piggy bank.” Mark Madoff is accused as improperly using $66 million from the business to buy luxury homes in New York City, Nantucket and Connecticut.

Feb. 24, 2010: Mark Madoff’s wife Stephanie files court papers asking change her last name to Morgan from Madoff. She said the change would help her avoid “additional humiliation” and harassment that included threats. Mark filed papers saying he did not object to the move.

Dec. 8, 2010: Court trustee Picard files a lawsuit in London seeking to recover at least $80 million from the international arm of Madoff’s business. Defendants include Mark and Andrew Madoff.

Dec. 10, 2010: Picard files civil racketeering charges against Austrian banker Sonja Kohn and 55 other defendants demanding that they give up nearly $20 billion, and accusing Kohn of accepting at least $62 million in secret kickbacks from Madoff for soliciting investors for the fraud.

Dec. 11, 2010: Mark Madoff is found dead in his New York apartment after apparently hanging himself while his 2-year-old son was sleeping in a nearby room.

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South Korea’s current-account surplus widened to a three-month high in October, indicating that exports have so far withstood the won’s appreciation against the dollar.

The surplus was $5.37 billion in October, up from a revised $3.95 billion in September, the Bank of Korea said in a statement in Seoul today. The current account is the broadest measure of international trade, tracking goods, services and investment income.

The nation is one of a number of emerging markets from Asia to Latin America striving to limit currency appreciation this year to support exports. North Korean shelling of a South Korean island three days ago sent the won to a two-month low against after unsettling investors.

“Exports will likely stay firm,” Hwang In Seong, vice president of the Samsung Economic Research Institute in Seoul, said before the release. “The won’s recent weakness due to the risks from North Korea and Europe will help.”

The currency touched 1,172.50 per dollar, the weakest level since Sept. 9, the day after North Korea fired artillery onto South Korean territory for the first time in half a century. The won’s advance in the past 6 months is the biggest climb in Asia, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Kospi stock index closed up 0.1 percent yesterday.

President Lee Myung Bak’s government expects limited economic impact from the incident with the North and has pledged to supply ample liquidity to cope with any shocks. The administration last week supported the revival of a tax on foreigners investing in the nation’s bonds to curb fund inflows driving up the won cash advance flexible payments.

Capital Controls

“The government may delay additional steps to control capital flows until international investors feel confident about the security situation,” Hwang said.

Bank of Korea Governor Kim Choong Soo raised borrowing costs by 0.25 percentage point in November, the second increase this year, to 2.5 percent. The current interest rate lags behind inflation, which surged past the monetary authority’s ceiling of 4 percent last month.

Exports account for about half the economy and grew for the 12th straight month in October. Overseas shipments have boosted earnings this year at firms such as Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea’s largest automaker.

Total exports on a customs-cleared basis, which excludes ships, rose 27.6 percent last month from a year earlier, compared with a revised 16.2 percent increase in September. Imports advanced 21.3 percent.

The surplus on traded goods widened to $6.54 billion in October from a revised $5.57 billion in September, today’s report showed. The services deficit, which measures the flow of travel, transport costs and royalties, was $1.69 billion last month, compared with a revised $1.96 billion in September.

The income account had a $756 million surplus, from a revised $509 million surplus in September.

South Korea’s economy is expected to grow 6.2 percent this year and 4.3 percent in 2011, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimated on Nov. 18.

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The Toronto stock market was poised to open relatively flat Monday as investors digested news that Ireland has applied for a massive emergency loan, and commodities remained little changed.

The Canadian dollar gained 17 cents to 98.4 cents U.S. even as the greenback edged higher against European currencies.

U.S. futures markets made early gains following Ireland’s application for financial aid from its European neighbours. However, those gains were soon erased with Dow Jones futures down 29 points to 11,150 and Nasdaq futures down 1.5 points to 2132 and the S&P 500 futures down 3.5 points to 1194.70.

European stocks and the euro currency got early boosts Monday and Asian stock markets closed mostly higher as investors were calmed after Ireland accepted some sort of aid package, expected to be worth no less than 100 billion euros, or US$137 billion.

The Irish government confirmed Sunday it is formally requesting a financial aid package to shore up its debt-laden banking sector. The actual details are expected to be released later in the week following talks between the Irish government and officials from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

The country will likely be forced to make further massive spending cuts and raise its very low rate of corporate tax.

However, investor uncertainty still lurks due to questions over whether the Irish austerity program will work and as eyes turn to whether other highly indebted euro countries — particularly Portugal — will be next.

Meanwhile, commodity prices were slightly lower as efforts by China to tighten monetary policy, such as higher bank reserve requirements, weighed the new January crude contract down 10 cents US$81.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The December copper contract on the Nymex slipped four cents to US$3.80 while the December gold contract gained 50 cents to US$1352.80.

Developments in Ireland will likely dominate market activity on what could be an otherwise quiet week as the U.S. markets effectively shut down mid week as traders take a Thanksgiving break.

Reports set to be released Tuesday and Wednesday include the Canadian consumer price index for October and retail sales for September. In the U.S. reports this week include October home sales, an update of consumer sentiment, and revisions to earlier estimates of the third-quarter gross domestic product.

In Canada, technology licensing company Wi-LAN Inc. (TSX: WIN) says it has initiated a lawsuit against Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc., and Charter Communications, claiming that each violates one of its patents in its cable systems and cable modem products.

Spectral Diagnostics Inc. (TSX: SDI) has signed a long-term, exclusive agreement with Toray Industries Inc. to market and sell Toraymyxin, a treatment for sepsis, in Canada. Financial details were not disclosed.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 0.2 per cent while France’s CAC-40 fell 0.1 per cent. Germany’s DAX remained in positive territory up 0.2 per cent.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average closed 0.9 per cent higher.

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Consumer sentiment rose more than expected in early November, helped by a slightly better economic outlook and early holiday sales, a survey released on Friday showed.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s preliminary November reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment came in at 69.3, up from 67.7 in October and slightly higher than the median forecast of 69.0 among economists polled by Reuters.

The reading is just above the 68.2 average of the last four months but below the post-recession high of 76 payday loan lenders.0 from June, according to the report.

The survey’s one-year inflation expectations measure also gained, edging up to 3.0 percent from 2.7 percent last month.

The barometer of current economic conditions rose to 79.7 from October’s reading of 76.6 and also above a forecast of 77.0.

A gauge of consumer expectations, meanwhile, rose to 62.7 from 61.9 in October. But it was below a forecast for 63.5.

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Northwest Pipe Co.’s president has resigned and has been replaced by the company’s CEO, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Friday.

Brian Dunham resigned as president and as a member of the board of directors of the Vancouver, Wash.-based company.

Dunham will be paid his base salary of $570,000 over the next 12 months.

CEO Richard A. Roman is now also president of Northwest Pipe (NASDAQ: NWPX).

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The University of the Incarnate Word has been named a ‘Great College to Work For’ by a leading newspaper on higher education.

The results were released in the third annual report on The Academic Workplace in The Chronicle of Higher Education. The report is based on a survey of more than 42,000 employees of 277 colleges and universities. The publication worked with ModernThink LLC, a human resources consulting firm, to produce the survey.

The University of the Incarnate Word was only one of 97 institutions to earn the 2010 Great College to Work For designation. UIW is also the only San Antonio school on the list.

UIW also made the 2010 Honor Roll, a list of only 39 schools, for being recognized in the most categories.

UIW was recognized in collaborative governance; professional/career-development programs; teaching environment; job satisfaction and support; confidence in senior leadership; supervisor or department chair relationship; respect and appreciation; and tenure clarity and process.

The Chronicle of Higher Education provides news and information about colleges and universities.

“With the Great Colleges program, The Chronicle can provide even more of the vital information our readers rely on – unbiased reporting on which colleges are being innovative in their workplace practices,” says Jeffrey J. Selingo, The Chronicle’s editor.

UIW is a private liberal arts university that serves more than 7,000 students. UIW is the largest Catholic university in the state and the fourth largest private university in Texas.

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Education Realty Trust Inc.’s funds from operations were flat in the first quarter, but income dropped compared to the previous year.

Funds from operations, the accepted performance measure for real estate investment trusts, were $7.815 million in first quarter 2010 compared to $7.795 in first quarter 2009. FFO per share declined, though, from $0.26 in first quarter 2009 to $0.13 in first quarter 2010.

The decline in FFO per share was due to a 28.2 million increase in the average shares outstanding year-over-year.

Income fell to $200,000, or less than $0.01 per share, in the quarter from $400,000, or $0.02 per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Revenues fell slightly in the quarter to $33.1 million from $33.9 million in the year-ago quarter.

Education Realty Trust reiterated its full year 2010 FFO outlook of $0.34-$0.40 per share.

CEO Randy Churchey said the company “made progress” in the quarter executing its restructuring plan and improving operating performance.

“Simultaneously, we continued working toward our longer term goal of strategically repositioning our portfolio through a combination of capital recycling and the acquisition of assets that are more advantageously located,” Churchey said in a statement.

Churchey took the helm of Education Realty Trust on Jan. 1 and has made sweeping changes that have seen executive leadership shifts and increased share prices. Click here to read more about Churchey and the changes he has instituted within the company.

Memphis-based Education Realty Trust (NYSE: EDR) is a REIT that owns, develops and operates 64 student housing communities with 37,835 beds in 22 states.

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You might be surprised to learn who’s following you on Twitter, or who your Facebook friends really are.

As the popularity of social networking spreads, law enforcement agencies are tapping into these sites to nab criminals, tax evaders and other wrongdoers, and gather evidence to support their cases.

"People don’t think [authorities] are going to go that far, but little do they know, they are going this far," said David Seltzer, a criminal and cyber crime defense lawyer.

In several of Seltzer’s cases, law enforcement agents created a false profile on MySpace and "friended" a suspect or a suspect’s friends in an attempt to retrieve information they needed for an investigation.

"I always tell my clients, if you have any social media pages, take them down, because as soon as something happens, agencies will start Googling your name," Seltzer said.

Last month, digital rights advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) obtained internal documents from the Justice Department and the IRS showing the ways in which social networking is used during investigations.

For example, an internal Justice Department presentation explained to employees that using social networking in criminal cases can reveal a suspect’s communications or whereabouts, establish motives and personal relationships and prove or disprove alibis.

As long as the information is public on sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace, it’s fair game for law enforcement. The Department of Justice can also take legal measures to retrieve private data from the site owners, according to the presentation.

Going undercover

"We will continue to use publicly available information individuals post online about their illegal activities or false statements to law enforcement officials in our investigations," a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice said. In addition to accessing public information through social media, the Justice Department document explains how going undercover online allows agents to communicate with suspects and targets, gain access to private information and map social relationships and networks.

But in order to do so, they need cooperation from the sites.

A spokeswoman for MySpace said the site has created a law enforcement guide and has developed a 24/7 hotline and e-mail account to assist law enforcement investigations. The company also provides training for cyber crime units on how to investigate and prosecute cyber criminals using MySpace.

The DOJ said in its presentation that MySpace often has public profiles but that it requires a search warrant to view private messages less than 181 days old.

"Ultimately everything we do revolves around two things," a MySpace spokeswoman said. "Making sure law enforcement gets the information they need in a way that complies with all laws in order to be admissible in court, and protecting the privacy of users from unauthorized exposure."

Facebook rarely allows for emergency exemptions from privacy laws and will fight requests it believes violate the law, according to a spokesman for the company.

"One hypothetical is a kidnapped child where every minute counts," he said. "It is in this type of instance where we have verified an emergency that we feel a responsibility to quickly share information that could save someone’s life."

Even in this example, however, the spokesman said Facebook would share the minimum amount of information, such as whether a user has logged in to his or her account.

IRS nabbing taxpayers

Twitter is less cooperative. While most content on Twitter is public and private messages are kept until users delete them, the site doesn’t require contact information, so users are tough to identify. And the site will only turn over information in response to legal process, according to the DOJ presentation. The IRS also uses social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and even Google Street View to investigate taxpayers.

While the Department of Justice acknowledges going undercover online, the IRS prohibits employees from misrepresenting their identities to obtain information on social media sites.

But IRS agents are allowed to use information they find about an individual taxpayer or business if it is made publicly available on a social networking site.

For example, the IRS explained that Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) Street View can be helpful to view properties.

Invasion of privacy?

"It’s presumably just a really cheap way to see what someone’s house looks like," said Shane Witnov, a student at the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, who worked with EFF to obtain this information. "If someone says their house is worth $100,000 and the IRS looks at it on Google Street View and it’s a mansion, they could probably question that claim."The Electronic Frontier Foundation questions the extent to which federal agencies should be able to use social media without crossing the line of legality and privacy invasion.

"The documents basically confirmed what we knew, that social networks are being used to collect information for investigations," said Witnov. "But we’re still trying to find out the scope of their use and what sort of oversight is in place to limit it, since it could be a potential invasion of privacy."

Witnov says that in some cases, authorities may be overstepping their boundaries, especially when creating false profiles and online identities to collect information.

"Law enforcement is allowed to lie, but some things seem to be crossing the line," he said. "We want more specific guidelines to make sure they’re not abusing their power." 

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Who’s going to win this year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament? Your guess is as good as ours. Probably better, actually.

But here’s one March Madness guarantee you can count on: the wildly popular tournament is going to generate tons of cash for the NCAA. And that’s why an expanded tournament is likely, possibly as soon as next year.

The 65-team tournament will bring in roughly $650 million for the NCAA this year — with the vast majority of that coming from broadcast rights payments from CBS.

That money basically funds the entire operation of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and is the financial lifeblood of many smaller schools’ athletic departments.

The big schools get most of that money. And more often than not, the more profitable programs make it to the Final Four over so-called Cinderellas. But profits aren’t a guarantee of success. There are plenty of big money schools not in this year’s tournament.

Big dollar schools staying home. North Carolina, last year’s champion, finished second to only Louisville in terms of revenue and profits for its basketball program last year according to figures filed with the Department of Education. It didn’t make the tournament this year though.

Neither did three other schools in the top 10 in basketball revenue — Illinois, Indiana and Arkansas. Still, those teams are certain to get more cash from this year’s tournament than smaller schools that made it to The Big Dance.

About $167 million of the proceeds from the tournament is split among all the NCAA conferences based on the number of games each conference’s teams played in over the last six years. That money is then typically divided evenly between members of the conference.

So North Carolina and their hated rival Duke will both see the same payday from the tournament, even if No. 1 seed Duke is the one cutting down the nets on April 5.

And because the payments are based on a six-year period, even if a Cinderella team from a smaller conference does well this year, that won’t significantly increase the payout for smaller schools.

More teams mean more dollars. That’s why it’s very likely, if not certain, that this is the last year only 65 teams will be invited to the tournament.

There’s too much potential for a lot more money if the tournament is expanded — and too many smaller schools need more of the big money.

The most discussed expansion scenario is to have a field of 96 teams. The teams ranked 1-32, which are primarily the big-dollar schools from the six major conferences, would wait while teams ranked 33 through 96 would play each other for the right to challenge the Goliaths.

The extra games would be shown on cable and on the Internet, which are the two fastest growing sources of new rights money for sports broadcasts fast payday loan.

The NCAA is expected to opt out of the last three years of an 11-year, $6 billion deal with CBS after this year’s tournament and seek a new long-term broadcast and Internet rights deal.

With more games to air in the week before the round of 64 begins, there is the likelihood of a much bigger payday, said Neal Pilson, a sports television consultant.

"I personally am not that excited about extending the tournament to 96 teams," he said. "But it likely will result in more money for the colleges. The NCAA has a fiduciary responsibility to at least find out what a new deal would be worth."

Pilson thinks Walt Disney (DIS, Fortune 500), with its combination of ABC and ESPN might be the front runner in the bidding for the NCAA. But he thinks CBS (CBS, Fortune 500) will fight hard to retain it, even if it means teaming with a cable network operator to make the bid. There are reports CBS is looking at a joint bid with Turner Sports, which like CNNMoney is a unit of Time Warner (TWX, Fortune 500).

Big win for the little guys. Who will benefit most from the additional dollars a new deal could bring? Surprisingly enough, the smaller schools.

In the current 65-team tournament, about half of the teams are from the six major conferences. But if you look at the RPI rankings of schools this year, a ranking that is widely considered to be what the tournament selection committee relies heavily upon, nearly two-thirds of the teams that could be added to a bigger tournament might come from the smaller conferences.

And since those schools would not have to play a top-ranked team in the first round, they would stand a much better chance to win at least one game. That would only help their programs and increase their future payouts.

Those small schools are far more dependent on the NCAA money than the major conference schools, which typically have their own TV deals and huge arenas.

Yes, far more of the tournament money flows to the Big East (about $27.5 million) than to the lowly Big West (about $4 million). But the Big East schools average revenue of $8.5 million and a profit of nearly $3 million annually.

By contrast, the Big West schools average just over $1 million in revenue and typically lose $80,000 each on basketball. Who do you think needs the extra money more?

So if you’re struggling to fill out a 96-team bracket this time next year, you can blame the unusual combination of big money schools and the Cinderella teams. 

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Obama administration officials urged lawmakers Tuesday to support the president’s budget, saying it will drive job growth.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, White House Director of the Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag and Council of Economic Advisers Chairwoman Christina Romer testified before the the House Appropriations committee on the administration’s economic outlook and agenda.

In a joint written statement, the officials said that although the stimulus package has helped turn around the economy from when "the threat of a second Great Depression was frighteningly real," the 9.7% unemployment rate is "unacceptable by any metric."

Jobs. An economic forecast produced by the officials’ three offices estimates that the labor market will add 100,000 jobs per month in 2010. However, they said the unemployment rate may still rise slightly over the next few months.

The trio added that jobs will grow by 200,000 a month in 2011, bringing the unemployment rate down to 8.9%. In 2012, payrolls will improve by 250,000 jobs each month, pushing the jobless rate down to 7.9% by the fourth quarter.

In the near term, they expect to see job gains by the spring based on consistent increases in temporary employment and employers expanding the workweek. Productivity growth has also surged at the fastest pace in nearly 50 years during the last three quarters, and the officials expect more hiring to keep pace.

GDP and inflation. Geithner, Orszag and Romer said the forecast projects that gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity, will tick higher by 3% in 2010, and grow 4.3% annually in 2011 and 2012.

They expect inflation to remain low, at 1% in 2010, 1 low interest rate personal loans.4% in 211 and 1.7% in 2012.

Investments. In addition to highlighting recent proposals from President Obama to spur job growth, the officials sought support for Obama’s budget policies that they said would stimulate the labor market and the broader economy.

They pushed for an overhaul of the financial system that would: limit large banks from taking risks that could threaten the whole economy; allow the government to break apart from failing firms; and give consumers better information.

On top of providing $19 billion for job training and other employment initiatives, Geithner, Orszag and Romer said the budget proposes to extend a $2,500 per year tax credit for college costs and assist student loan borrowers with repayment plans.

The budget will also increase research and development by 6.4% and reallocate funding from NASA’s Constellation program to research on climate and global change and and science education.

The budget will also extend funding for clean-energy initiatives, infrastructure and to increase exports of goods produced by small businesses.

Deficit. The officials said the budget also proposes to reduce the government’s deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next decade through several measures, including requiring Wall Street firms to repay the costs of the bailout programs and allowing some tax cuts aimed at households earning more than $250,0000 annually to expire.

Comprehensive health care reform would also lower the deficit, they said.  

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