Aksia Wins $50 Billion Madoff Sweepstakes
Monday, December 15, 2008
Jim Vos is the CEO of 35-person hedge fund research firm Aksia LLC and he has positioned himself as the Rudy Giuliani of the massive smoking tower that is the Madoff scandal. Key differences between Vos and Rudy: Vos appears to be both sane and to actually have the force of track record and evidence behind his calm demeanor.
Vos and Aksia have postioned themselves as by far the smartest guys in the 13 x 18 foot room by earning placement of their letter to clients on the home page of the New York Times, Vos himself appeared on Bloomberg television and got his name placed in blog after blog after blog.
Vos and Aksia deserve a win on this, but it makes me wonder – did Aksia report any of their findings about Madoff to the SEC? Or even to any one of the worthy news outlets that would have killed to expose the smoking gun that Aksia claims not to have found? And if not, why not? They’re reaping the benefits of having made the right call in hindsight, but with a little investigative journalism on the front end it could have been much, much more.