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Former Wall Street Trader Shares Personal Madoff Story, Cautions Against Blind Trust in Financial Systems
Keynote address by Andrew Cohen kicks off Spring 2025 Marlin Business Conference at VWU
University News | April 15, 2025
The Spring 2025 Marlin Business Conference began Monday evening with a compelling and cautionary tale from former Wall Street trader and award-winning lecturer Andrew Cohen. Speaking to a packed room of students, faculty, and community members, Cohen delivered his keynote, “Goldman, Madoff and the Markets: What They Didn’t Teach You in Class,” blending gripping personal anecdotes with lessons in ethics, risk management, and financial transparency. 
Cohen, a Distinguished Senior Lecturer of Finance at Old Dominion University and the creator of the “Future Traders” simulation platform, drew from his real-life experience working at the highest levels of finance—including a formative stint at Bernie Madoff’s firm before its collapse into infamy.
“Who’d have thought that a poppy seed bagel would change my life.” Cohen told the crowd, referring to a failed drug test caused by the breakfast item that led him to accept a position with Madoff’s firm in the early 1990s. Ironically, the job he lost had been based at the top of the World Trade Center, where he might have been on September 11, 2001. That twist of fate served as one of many pivotal moments in Cohen’s extraordinary journey through the financial world.
In vivid detail, Cohen recounted the nepotism and unchecked generosity within Madoff’s firm—perks he initially chalked up to company culture, unaware they were funded by one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history. After leaving Madoff’s company in 2000 and retiring to Virginia Beach, he found himself ensnared in the aftermath. Though he was declared a “good faith” investor, having no knowledge of the fraud, he was still held liable to return funds he had unknowingly withdrawn. Legal action ensued, ultimately ending in a 2017 settlement.
Cohen used his personal story to illustrate the broader institutional failures that allowed Madoff’s scheme to persist for decades, including missed red flags and regulatory blind spots.
“There’s a guy named Harry Markopolos who basically was a whistleblower who kept telling the SEC what Madoff was doing and cheating,” Cohen said. “He gave all the info and still, they were so incompetent they still couldn’t stop Madoff. Sometimes the people who are doing the fraud are more savvy and smart than the people who are trying to catch them.”
Cohen’s keynote was the perfect launch for the student-led business conference themed “Riding the Wave of Innovation.” His blend of storytelling, industry insight, and ethical caution set a reflective tone for the week ahead, inspiring students to critically evaluate the financial world and their roles in shaping its future.
View the Spring 2025 Marlin Business Conference Photo Gallery