Forensic accounting must be more robust

IN JUNE 2009, Bernie Madoff, a former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange, was sentenced to 150 years in prison for operating the largest Ponzi scheme in US history. Over the course of several decades, he had systematically defrauded investors of up to US$65 billion, engaging in illegal activities including securities fraud, money laundering and making false filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

While the scale of the US$65 billion scam was eye-catching, what was perh…