FINC20019 | Assessment 2 Research Report | Finance

Section 1: Overview

This is a group assignment. Groups can be 1 or 2 persons ONLY. For all students the assignment is worth 40% of the total mark.

The mark-sheet of this assignment is your coversheet.

The task requires you to draw from a range of credible sources and explore issues related to the research topic [refer Section 3] and present your findings in a report format.

Some source material has been provided to kick-start your exploration however it is expected that your research extends beyond these materials to:

• relevant academic journal articles
• professional publications
• media reports
• and/or podcasts

The report must be confined to:

• • 8 pages of text (i.e. no more than 2,000 words) in report format, plus
  • 1 cover page and I page for Table of Contents
  • 1 page for references (use only APA referencing) and
  • 1-2 pages for appendices
  • Font Arial or Times Roman
  • Headings 14 Pt Bold; Sub-Headings 12pt Normal Italic and body 12pt normal
  • Edges of the document must be justified

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IMORTANT: Your report must have an interesting title which captures the ideas and findings in your report.

How you will be graded

• A detailed rubric is provided in Section 4. The rubric describes the measures of excellence and shows how the marks are distributed.

Section 2: Submission Details and Issues that will Impact on Your Mark.

Submission Details

This online submission MUST BE submitted as a word document. PDF submissions will not be accepted.

Issues that will impact on your marks include:

1. Where copying from other sources results in high % similarity, marks will be deducted as shown on the mark-sheet. Therefore, proper use of in-text referencing is important. Avoid direct quotes.

Turnitin will be used to check % similarity.

Under extreme circumstances where high % similarity indicates copying from written works of other students in CQU, other universities or any other institutions world-wide, the assignment will be reviewed by the academic misconduct board.

If percentage similarity exceeds 20%, marks will be deducted based on a progressive scale as determined by the course co-ordinator.

1. The report is marked out of 100 and scaled down to 40% of total assessment grade. Penalty for late submission is 5% per calendar day including Saturday and Sunday.

Section 3: Assignment Task

Research Topic:

Only 11 to December 2008 Bernard Madoff, former non-executive chairman of NASDAQ, was arrested and charged with a variety of criminal offenses including securities fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and perjury.

On 12 March 2009 he pleaded guilty to the charges brought against him, resulting in a 150 year sentence being handed down on 29 June 2009. He was guilty of the largest investor fraud in history with an estimated $65 billion lost from financial institutions and individuals around the globe.

The type of scam he was involved in is called a Ponzi scheme.

Based on your broadly research pf Ponzi schemes / scams and the Bernard Madoff case:

1. Describe a Ponzi scheme / scams
2. Write a detailed background on the case
3. Use tables and charts to show timelines of events
4. Present findings of institutions and investors affected.
5. Discuss the outcome of the case in terms of recommendations and implications for the future
6. Discuss whether you think enough has been done to reduce the chance of this happening to gain