Nothing stupefies like money. Even the savviest investors tend to look the other way when extraordinary returns are being made. This unfortunate human trait is the fuel behind speculative bubbles and the magic behind all financial scams.

No one, it seems, has exploited this as blatantly in recent times as Wall Street bigwig Bernard Madoff, a former Nasdaq chairman arrested this week for allegedly running the biggest dollar Ponzi scheme of all time. His victims include wealthy friends and family as well as such funds as Nicola “Supermum” Horlick’s Bramdean Alternatives, which yesterday fell 36 per cent.