Bernie Madoff

2/5/2016

There was a television movie about Madoff this week.  Movies or television shows about someone famous or infamous, gets my curiosity radar to start up.  After watching the two night show about Madoff, I immediately wanted to do some research into his life.

He was a fraud and master minded the largest Ponzi scheme in America.  Watching the movie, it was clear that he was a slick, fast talking, "I'll take care of you, don't worry" kind of guy.  People tripped over themselves to give him money.  Pension plans, individual retirement funds, as well as charitable foundations, were handled by Madoff.  The size of the fraud was stated as $65 billion early in the investigation. A former SEC Chairman estimated the actual net fraud to be between $10 and $17 billion.  That's a lot of money. 

People trusted him, were reassured by him and ultimately defrauded by him.  His lifestyle, and that of his family, was extravagant.  His wife and sons contended that they didn't know what Madoff was doing.  All the money that was given to Madoff to invest, went into his own personal business bank account at Chase Manhattan.  When an investor wanted out of Madoff's fund, he took the money out of the bank account, or from another investor's funds.

After Madoff's arrest and conviction, his wife was allowed to keep $2.5 million, which is a pretty nice nest egg.  Properly invested, a person could live quite comfortably with that kind of money.  I know I wish I had 2.5 million dollars to play with!

Madoff was sent to a minimum security federal prison in North Carolina.  From the pictures I see on the Internet, it doesn't look like a regular prison, the kind we see in the movies, dark, drab and dreary. 

On the second anniversary of Madoff's arrest, his son Mark committed suicide.  Madoff's other son Andrew died in 2014, leaving behind  $15 million dollars to his ex-wife, fiancee and children.  

Such a sad ending for a man, and his family, who at one time, were living life in style.  Mrs. Madoff now shops at Ikea rather than Tiffany's.

P