The mastermind behind the world's biggest Ponzi fraud, Bernard Madoff, revealed in an in-jail interview with SEC Inspector General David Kotz exactly how he had managed to get away with the scheme for so long. Pointing out SEC's unfocused and casual attitude, the swindler was quoted as saying, "It never entered the SEC's mind that it was a Ponzi scheme (because of) the reputation I had".

Madoff has managed to keep his multi Billion Dollar fraud operation and scheme concealed from the authorities for a shockingly long period of time. "They thought, the likelihood of Madoff being a big criminal was probably not something that was realistic", said Paul Atkins, a former SEC Commissioner.

Madoff, long regarded as a financial genius the world over, has swindled his way into people believing that he was the best investor and trader the world had ever seen. He was even the NASDAQ Chairman for quite sometime. In 2003, the fraud was convinced he would be caught when he thought the authorities were going to check his account and uncover that he had, in fact, not been trading any stock he claimed he was. It was quite a surprise to him when that didn't happen. Some view it as one of SEC's biggest blunders.

Although the US securities investigators had, more than once, raised doubts over Madoff's intentions, nothing concrete had been done about it. With the master swindler now behind bars, everyone is expecting SEC to be better equipped in future. What happens to Madoff remains to be seen.