bernie madoff yacht auction

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Bernie Madoff’s Yacht - ‘Bull’ - To Be Sold

It’s akin to buying Al Capone’s violin case: British asset realisation specialist Wyles Hardy & Co. is offering more property from Bernie Madoff, the world’s greatest fraudster, this time a 27-metre Leopard superyacht .

The $50bn (£35bn) investment scam generated enough money for Madoff to treat himself to some of life’s luxuries. A mid-November New York auction saw the sale of some of his ill-gotten gains, such as a $67,500 Rolex watch , his wife’s $550,000 diamond engagement ring and $6000 embroidered velveteen slippers .

This generated $2,000,000 for creditors, and added to a previous auction which had totaled $1,000,000. Now, one of the jewels in the crown of Madoff's possessions is up for grabs: the 2007 27-metre superyacht ‘Bull’ .

Currently lying off Gibraltar, the boat has just been released from full out-of-the-water maintenance and, according to Wyles Hardy & Co. , is “ready for immediate use”.

The twin MTU M92 engines , each producing 2285HP at 2450rpm, have seen less than 300 hours' running time. The motor yacht has six berths, which number an owner’s en-suite stateroom; VIP en-suite cabin; guest en-suite cabin; and three crew berths.

Having a list price of 6m euros when new, it was constructed in 2007 by Cantiere Navale Arno (Pisa, Italy) to Madoff’s specifications. The yacht comes complete with monogrammed towels and bespoke bed covers embroidered with Ruth and Bernie Madoff’s initials.

Concerning Madoff’s ‘Bull’, Gordon Wyles , Chairman of Wyles Hardy & Co ., has made the following statement: “Although we have had significant interest in Europe, we are keen to test the US market before we conclude a sale as we believe that this yacht’s association with the largest swindle of the 20th Century makes ‘Bull’ almost a piece of American heritage.

“It should prove attractive to US-based buyers, with its intriguing charter-market opportunities.”

For further details, and to register expressions of interest, please contact Gordon Wyles , [email protected] , or Simon Withall , [email protected] . Or call +44 (0)1442 832234.

Text: Steve Wakefield Photos: Wyles Hardy & Co ClassicInside - The Classic Driver Newsletter Free Subscription!

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Bernie Madoff’s boat Bull finally up for sale

The 27m Leopard is lying in Gibraltar after undergoing a full out-of-water service

A motor boat that belonged to convicted Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff is finally for sale following a protracted legal dispute over its ownership.

The 27m-long Leopard , Bull , was purchased by Madoff Securities International Limited (MSIL) in 2007 for €5 million.

It has been hardly used since its purchase, and is now lying in Gibraltar having just undergone a full out-of-the-water service.

Inside are a “luxurious” master cabin, two guest ensuites, and three berths for crew.

It is only coming on the market now, some time after the sale of many of Madoff’s assets , because of a long dispute over its ownership.

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Both the liquidators and a French creditor claimed the vessel shortly after Madoff’s empire went pop.

“Having resolved a period of legal dispute over its ownership, I am pleased to be finally able to offer for sale yacht Bull ,” said Stephen Akers from liquidators Grant Thornton .

“I am sure that its unique history and high specification will ensure that there is significant interest in the yacht.”

Anyone interested in the boat should contact Wyles Hardy & Co , which is handling the sale, on 01442 832234.

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Bernie Madoff's "Bull" for Sale in Florida

Two yachts and Mercedes are on the block in auction of Ponzi scammer's assets.

Nov. 17, 2009 — -- On Tuesday at 4 p.m., a Mercedes and three boats, including a 55-foot yacht, that were once owned by convicted scammer Bernard Madoff will be sold at an auction that could yield several million dollars for Madoff's victims . By Monday evening, 51 people had put up the necessary $100,000 for the right to bid, according to Bob Toney, president and CEO of National Liquidators, which is running the auction for the U.S. government .

"I am pleased and surprised that the interest is this high," said Toney. "It may not go up much more but it could. It's the first time I've auctioned off three boats owned by a man who embezzled $65 billion dollars, so nothing surprises me at this point."

Click here to go behind the scenes of Brian Ross' investigation into Bernie and Ruth Madoff.

The sale includes Madoff's 55-foot yacht, called the "Bull," the 38-foot "Sitting Bull," and a 24-foot boat called "Little Bull," as well as Madoff's black 1999 Mercedes Benz convertible. According to the auction catalog, "Elegant appointments abound inside the cabin" of the "Bull," a restored 40-year-old Rybovich sportfishing boat. "A luxurious master stateroom and comfortable guest staterooms offer the kind of comfort and ambience found in a stately and dignified home.

The biggest vessel on offer, however, belonged to former Madoff sidekick, Frank DiPascali. Once Madoff's chief financial officer, DiPascali plead guilty to 10 counts for his role in Madoff's Ponzi scheme . DiPascali, who is cooperating with authorities, has not yet been sentenced. He faces up to 125 years in prison. Madoff is currently serving a 150-year term.

Click here to purchase "The Madoff Chronicles" from Amazon.com.

Jennifer Crane of the U.S. Marshal's asset forfeiture division told the Associated Press that an auction of Madoff's personal belongings held in New York this past Saturday earned more than $1 million.

Toney said he didn't want to make specific predictions about how much the Fort Lauderdale auction will bring. "As with any high-profile auction, we're letting the market set the value," said Toney. "But with that number of bidders you'll get what the Marshals want out of the boats and hopefully a little bit more. "

"We don't know how much notoriety may add to the price, but it has certainly added interest," added Toney. A life preserver from the Bull sold for $7,500 at this weekend's auction in New York.

All of the proceeds of the auction will go to Madoff's victims. The administrative costs of the auction, said Toney, are covered by the government. Three or four more auctions of Madoff's personal items are expected, and an $8.9 million penthouse in Manhattan and a $7.9 million Palm Beach mansion are also on the market. Both prices have been reduced since the homes first went on the market two months ago.

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Toney said he didn't want to make specific predictions about how much the Fort Lauderdale auction will bring. \"As with any high-profile auction, we're letting the market set the value,\" said Toney. \"But with that number of bidders you'll get what the Marshals want out of the boats and hopefully a little bit more. \"

\"We don't know how much notoriety may add to the price, but it has certainly added interest,\" added Toney. A life preserver from the Bull sold for $7,500 at this weekend's auction in New York.

Whole Lotta Bull: Madoff's Yachts Go on Auction Block

Ponzi schemer's yachts to be sold to highest bidder in fort lauderdale, by ari odzer and brian hamacher • published november 16, 2009 • updated on november 17, 2009 at 7:13 am.

They're the pricey toys Bernie Madoff used to cruise the waters off Florida and Long Island, and tomorrow they can be yours -- if your bank account's big enough.

Three of the convicted Ponzi schemer's big boats, along with another that belonged to his CFO will be auctioned off in Fort Lauderdale tomorrow, and you'll need at least $50,000 to get in the door.

The highlight of the auction will be "The Bull," a 55-foot vintage Rybovich fishing yacht, restored to museum quality.

Designed for tournament fishing, the auction description said it includes "A luxurious master stateroom, and comfortable guest staterooms offer the kind of comfort and ambience found in a stately and dignified home."

Also auctioned off will be " Sitting Bull " and "Little Bull," smaller luxury yachts but no less opulent than "The Bull." "Sitting Bull" is the 38-foot yacht Madoff kept in Montauk, Long Island, and "Little Bull" a 24-foot Maverick fishing boat.

The boats were seized by U.S. Marshals on April 1, the same day Madoff's $9 million Palm Beach mansion was seized.

The $65 billion Ponzi schemer apparently had quite a bull fetish, littering his Florida and New York homes with bull statues, bull paintings and just about anything else he could slap a bull on.

Madoff, 71, was sentenced in July to 150 years behind bars for bilking investors out of billions.

Marshals selected National Liquidators of Fort Lauderdale to handle tomorrow's auction, which will also include a 61-foot yacht that belonged to former Madoff CFO Frank DiPascali, as well as Madoff's black 1999 Mercedes CLK 320 convertible. 

U.S. Marshals couldn't believe how well kept the 1969 Rybovich was when they seized it in April.

"A lot of money was put into maintaining this boat," said Barry Golden, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service. "This boat was extremely well kept, extremely clean. Engine compartment was spotless. It looked like somebody took a bottle of 409 and scrubbed it every day."

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The boat is estimated to be worth about $2.2 million, but judging on the big money that this weekend's auction of Madoff trinkets in New York brought in, National Liquidators is likely hoping to bring in more than face value.

The auction raised nearly $900,000, and included Madoff's Rolex watch and personalized Mets jacket and jewelry belonging to wife Ruth.

Tomorrow's auction is a private event, and bidders will have to show they can afford Bernie's ill-gotten baubles. It'll take a $50,000 deposit to bid on "Little Bull" or the Mercedes, and $100,000 to bid on anything else.

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Madoff's goodies: Going, going, gone

Disposing a lifetime of madoff's acquisitions is a big job. here's a status check of where the sales of his homes, his boats and his personal and household effects stand..

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- You can't take it with you, not to prison, so the long list of material possessions amassed by Bernie Madoff during his years of ill-gotten gains will soon be sold off, their link to the felonious financier eventually forgotten.

Already, his vacation home on Cap D'Antibes, France, is in another's possession, sold earlier this year for about $1.5 million.

Just last month, Bernie's Long Island beach "cottage" went. The four-bedroom, three-bath, 3,000-square-foot home, which Madoff bought for a mere $250,000 back in 1980, fetched $9.41 million, well above the $8.75 million asking price.

The sales of his Manhattan penthouse and Palm Beach place have not gone as well. Not only has neither been sold, the asking prices have been slashed by a cool million, to $8.9 million, for the co-op, and by more than $500,000, to $7.9 million, for the Palm Beach house.

On Saturday, Nov. 14, the auction of many of his personal and household effects happens. The event will include nearly 500 items taken from Bernie's Manhattan and Montauk homes.

Dozens of watches will be featured as well as jewelry and furs. But there will also be far more mundane goods up for auction, such as a personalized NY Mets satin jacket, decoy ducks, fishing-tackle boxes, golf clubs and, imagine this, boogie boards tagged with the name MADOFF in heavy black marker.

There's a lot more stuff where this merchandise came from, too. So there will be more auctions to come. "This is just a small fraction of all we have from the houses," said Roland Ubaldo, one of the U.S. Marshals who supervised the seizure.

Every piece on auction is in very good condition, according to Ubaldo. Anything with any wear and tear has been left out.

There's little of his extensive wardrobe being sold, other than a few personalized, unused polo shirts, still in their plastic, and the Mets jacket. His suits, dress shirts, sports jackets, slacks and shoes are not up for bid. At least not this round.

The auction will take place at the New York Sheraton in Manhattan and bidders and casual observers can access it online at www.proxibid.com/gaston . So far 650 bidders have registered.

"No question about it. High profile auctions like this attract a lot of attention," said Proxibid CEO Bruce Hoberman, who expects the number of bidders to near 2,000 by auction day.

The New York auction should bring in, even if the low estimates prevail, a total of nearly $500,000. The proceeds go to repay the victims of Madoff's Ponzi scheme.

To bid on any of the Madoff lots in person, you must register by Friday from 11 am to 4 pm or starting at 8:30 Saturday morning. A photo ID is required and a $250 deposit. Online bidders must put down $1,000. The deposits are refundable if you don't win a bid.

After the Saturday sale, Madoff maniacs can turn to an auction of Bernie's four boats on Tuesday. But they'll have to trek down to Fort Lauderdale, where the sale is taking place.

There's the flagship of Madoff's Florida fleet, "The Bull," a 55-foot, fishing boat built in 1969 that sleeps six. It has been meticulously restored. There's also a 23-foot putt-putt, "Little Bull," and a 38-foot "Shelter Island Runabout," called "Sitting Bull" that has the deep-keeled, old-fashioned look of a 1920s rum runner.

The biggest Madoff nautical prize, however, is not on auction Tuesday. It's an 89-foot sport yacht, also called "Bull," that was seized in France. Its sale is being handled by British auctioneer Wyles Hardy, who is asking a reported $8.5 million.

National Liquidators, which is managing the Fort Lauderdale auction, has provided no estimates for the other three boats. However, there's a similar 55-foot Rybovich Sport Fisherman on sale on Yachtworld.com for $450,000. It may not be possible to precisely compare prices because customizing and condition might make the Bull more valuable than that.

Yachtworld.com also has a few Shelter Island Runabouts for sale at prices ranging from about $300,000 to $400,000.

The value of Little Bull is probably in the low five figures.

In addition to the Madoff maritime collection, there's another 61-foot high-performance power boat at the same auction. It's the "Dorothy Jo," once owned by Frank DiPascali, Madoff's CFO, who pleaded guilty to 10 counts of fraud, criminal conspiracy et al. He's been held for sentencing since early August and faces as much as 125 years.

His boat is probably worth more than all three Madoff vessels put together. The few similar Vikings available for sale on Yachtworld.com are all priced around $1.5 million.

The National Liquidators' auction also includes Bernie's 10-year-old Mercedes Benz CLK 320 convertible with less than 13,000 miles on it. All the Madoff connected items will be auctioned starting at 4 pm on Tuesday.

There are a lot of potential buyers, according to J.R. Hipple, a spokesman for National Liquidators. "It's a funny thing," he said. "Our company has not done an auction with anyone so notorious before. This has attracted a lot of attention."

It's expected that the sale of all Madoff's material goods, the homes, the cars, the boats, jewelry, furntiture included, may raise more than $50 million, which will all go into a fund to compensate his victims. That's in addition to any assets left in the investment funds and that can be recaptured from his personal accounts and the accounts of others who profited from the scam.

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The jewellery, the boats, the minks and the pants: How fraudster Bernie Madoff’s worldly goods are finally helping the thousands he destroyed

Bernie Madoff’s $65bn Ponzi scheme stunned the world. But behind the brash front pages, a meticulous taskforce from a small US government department was sifting through his monogrammed socks, silk slippers and wife's mink coats for the sale of all sales.

By Claire Hills, Journalist

Wednesday 7 December 2022 02:28, UK

As Jenny Crane walked into the kitchen of the stately, $8 million New York penthouse, a small blue sticky note caught her eye.

It was a message from Ruth Madoff, Bernie's wife.

"I definitely want to keep my Nespresso," it said.

Bernard Madoff masterminded the biggest investment fraud in US history, netting himself millions of dollars, and yet here was his wife, begging for a coffee machine.

Woven over four decades, the financier's sophisticated web ensnared up to 40,000 people in 136 countries - celebrities, sports stars, movie directors, a Holocaust survivor, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and thousands upon thousands of everyday folk whose lives were blighted when they lost pensions, college funds, savings, money for medical bills; in short, their nest eggs.

Madoff, who died last year, was jailed for 150 years and while that brought some sense of justice to his victims, it didn't help them with their catastrophic financial losses.

Step in Jenny and the Department of Justice Asset Forfeiture Management Staff taskforce.

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A US federal government team and part of the Marshals Service, it was set up to recover assets used as part of a crime or bought with the proceeds of crime, sell them, and then give back the money made, to victims.

Before 1984, if you went to jail for racketeering money or laundering or plain old stealing, you got to go home after serving your time - to your penthouse and Mercedes with all your cash still in the bank.

But the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 changed all that.

If you're a kingpin, watch your back

As Jenny told the Chasing Evil podcast: "If you have ill-gotten gains as a result of an illegal activity, the government can now seek forfeiture, meaning take those items and sell them …to help reimburse victims.

"From 1984, 'forfeiture' was made part of the justice vernacular. Now, we could take away all the goodies the drug dealers and money launderers had.

"So, if you are a kingpin, the DA is looking for you, and if you bought a fleet of high-end cars with the money you have made selling the drugs, then we are going to take those cars. Or if you are driving those cars to facilitate selling all the drugs, we are taking those cars as well.

"If you use your money, and you purchase a car, a house, you have annuities, stock bonds, you have horses, you have llamas, we have the ability to seize (which is to hold on to) until the tenancy of a court case.

"Once forfeited, all title rights and interests pass to the US government - and we can sell them."

And sell them they did.

It took a team of almost 30 over many days at the Madoff Manhattan penthouse to catalogue, pack and remove every single item - and this was only one of three homes the couple owned.

Everything from jewellery and furniture to that Nespresso, socks and underpants were removed and listed for sale.

And the Madoff auction was the auction to end all auctions.

It generated a frenzy of people wanting to own a piece of criminal history.

Thousands of buyers queued outside just one of the sales in New York. Journalists from all over the world descended.

Lot Number 380 was: "Several pairs of men's socks, used, 1 pair of Prada pantyhose, 11 pairs of men's designer boxers shorts". ("Those were new, they were not used," says Jenny).

Bidding started at $955. The lot went for $1,700.

'So much conspicuous consumption'

At the apartment, the socks had been stored in a luxurious built-in closet, with cedar-lined drawers. All were monogrammed.

"There were several pairs of shoes too," says Jenny, "all within the original maker box, all the same size, all monogrammed in every colour possible.

"There was so much conspicuous consumption."

Bob Sheehan, of Gaston and Sheehan Auctioneers, who ran the sales, said: "There must have been over 200 pairs of shoes, all the same brand - a Belgian shoe.

"On the wall next to the closet, he [Madoff] actually had a schematic to show what colour shoe was on what shelf, and when he wore them and where."

The couple's clothes were replicated in all three of their homes, too.

Jenny: "It was so they didn't need to pack a bag. At every home there were a lot of shoes, a lot of socks, a lot of underwear.

"No-one needs 100 pairs of socks all reminding you of your initials!"

One lot was a leather bull footstool. The item description read: "Tail needs to be re-attached."

It went for $3,300.

A Steinway piano, with an opening bid of $7,000, went for $42,000.

Bob said: "I talked to the buyer after the sale. He said he'd always wanted a Steinway and thought, 'well, if I want a Steinway and I have a Steinway that was in Bernie Madoff's house, that's even better'."

There was big interest from financial companies on Wall Street too.

One bought a stock certificate with no intrinsic value at all - just a piece of 8x11 inch paper with Bernie Madoff's name on it.

It sold for more than $1,000.

Lot 292, a "wooden duck decoy, with maroon head glass eyes, black body" went for $4,750.

A pair of black, embroidered slippers - which were, of course, monogrammed - went for $6,000.

A Mets jacket with Madoff's name on it fetched $14,000. The Mets were also a victim of his crimes.

On December 11, 2008, Madoff was arrested by the FBI. On March 12, 2009, he pleaded guilty to 11 federal crimes and admitted running the largest private Ponzi scheme in history.

'A beast and a monster'

The trial was covered by the world's media and in the glare of the unrelenting spotlight, even Madoff's family became victims: Under the pressure of it all, his son committed suicide. His brother lost most of his possessions. There were no winners. He was variously labelled a "beast" and a "monster" by his trusting investors. "And these investors weren't just your big dollar money people," said Jenny, "These were your grandma and grandad retired to Florida."

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Roland Yubaldo, a senior inspector with the Organised Crime and Drug Enforcement taskforce, told the podcast: "He destroyed so many lives, financially, emotionally - and not just for this generation but for many to come."

And this is why, he says, asset forfeiture is such an important weapon in the law enforcement armoury.

"The use of asset forfeiture disrupts and dismantles illegal enterprises. It deprives criminals of the proceeds of illegal activity, deters crime, and it restores property back to victims," he said.

Chasing Evil podcast host, Chris Godsick, described the Justice Asset Forfeiture Management Staff taskforce as, a "phenomenal programme," adding, "it really seeks justice for victims in a way they usually don't get it". Jenny went further. "It's the best law enforcement success story out there," she said simply.

• Chris Godsick, creator of the Chasing Evil podcast, was given exclusive behind-the-scenes access to many of the largely unknown areas of the marshals' work. The extraordinary stories he uncovers are told via all major podcast providers.

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Make Off with Madoff’s Yacht

• By Daniel Harding, Jr.
• Updated: December 7, 2010

The infamous conspirator of the 50-billion dollar investment scam, Bernie Madoff spared no expense in the purchasing of luxury goods such as the custom 88-foot Leopard Yacht aptly named Bull . Wyles Hardy and Company, who are joint liquidators of Madoff Securities International, have announced the yacht is ready to be sold at auction.

Bull features accommodations for six in three staterooms as well as three crew berths. Powered is supplied by twin MTU M92s that have logged less than 300 hours running the financier and guests along the south of France. The reported cruising speed is 33 knots.

With a list price of $6 million when new in 2007, Bull has the potential of being sold for more than his last three yachts that were auctioned off for an approximate combined total of 1 million dollars.

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Don’t ask, don’t tell: Author tells how Madoff mastered the art of stealing billions

Bernie Madoff has surely left a mark on the Jewish community of the North Shore — the Lappin Foundation was one of the largest victims of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, which cost investors $65 billion — and on all the other investors who believed they entered into a low-risk, 10-to-12-percent-return hedge fund.

Whether investors or not, many have lingering questions, such as how Madoff attracted investors who didn’t raise a red flag about Madoff’s steady rates of return, and one that burns on many minds: Where is the money now?

Every good journalist is taught that the way to break a story is to follow the money trail.

Enter Erin Arvedlund, who wrote one of the first books to be released about the Madoff scandal, “Too Good to Be True: The Rise and Fall of Bernie Madoff,” released last month.

Arvedlund was a little girl when her parents moved to Marblehead in 1973. While living in town, she experienced daycare, nursery school and kindergarten at Eveleth School before her parents relocated to Delaware, where her father worked for DuPont, in charge of running employee pension funds.

“We used to play store on the beach,” says Arvedlund, recalling Marblehead fondly. “We used to go to the Bluff and play and collect shells and beach rocks.”

Her parents have since moved back to Marblehead — splitting their time between here and Delaware.

Arvedlund’s start as a writer came in Marblehead, when she wrote about Christmas tree shopping with her father. Her mother turned the story into a booklet ornament and hung it on the Christmas tree.

“My mom has been my biggest fan,” says Arvedlund.

Majoring in international relations at Tufts University, she had her second experience in writing as news editor for the weekly college newspaper, the Tufts Observer.

Ironically, Tufts’ endowment had some money invested in Madoff, and when it was time for Arvedlund’s research on the subject, she says school officials proved helpful.

Once she graduated from Tufts, Arvedlund worked for the Newswire before heading overseas to work at The Moscow Times.

Interested? On Wednesday, Sept. 9, 6:30 p.m., Marblehead native Erin Arvedlund will be in the Meeting Room at Abbot Public Library, 235 Pleasant St. in Marblehead, to speak about and to sign copies of her new book, “Too Good To Be True: The Rise and Fall of Bernie Madoff.” For more information, visit abbotlibrary.org .

“That was great because I started getting background as a business reporter,” says Arvedlund, who returned from Moscow and worked for TheStreet.com, then funded by Jim Cramer, television host of “Mad Money” on CNBC.

Then, in 2001, when the hedge-fund market was in its infancy, she began to write for Barron’s Magazine. During her time at Barron’s she would have one opportunity to speak with Madoff.

‘Mathematically impossible’

“I had been working on a story — one of those ideas that took me a while to find an angle,” she says. “I’d been writing a column for Barron’s Magazine, covering topics such as assets managers and hedge funds, which at the time were becoming prominent on Wall Street.

“However, in the course of asking around — who should I write about — I kept hearing about Madoff, that he ran a billion-dollar hedge fund and nobody knew how he did it. He wasn’t turning over very high returns, but he was consistent; he never had a losing year. It sounded impossible, theoretically, in the real world.”

It was Ken Nakayama, an options expert and Arvedlund’s source, who tipped her off to one particular fact: “That it was mathematically impossible to replicate the performance that Madoff claimed,” she says. “That’s how the story got going.”

She pitched the idea to a receptive Barron’s, and then tried to call Madoff’s office for a chat with Bernie, who was out of the office and never returned her phone call — that is, until she threatened to run the story, with or without his input.

Before she spoke with Madoff personally, she talked with former investors who said Madoff told investors, “Don’t tell anyone I’m your money manager.”

For the people who knew they were investing with Madoff directly, greed played a role.

“They knew about the ‘no-tell’ policy,” says Arvedlund.

The investors were certainly capable of asking questions, but for those with investments through pension funds, they had no idea.

“They can’t be blamed for being greedy,” she says.

And then there are those who knew, but thought they were doing the prudent thing.

“He would press people to buy a small amount at the beginning — small being a million dollars — and once they gained trust over the years, he would allow them to come in for 10, 50 or 100 million, and they could get their money out at any time,” explains Arvedlund. “No questions. Even a bank has a waiting period. He was acting as a bank, and marketed as an alternative to a money-market account.”

Arvedlund adds, “When I talked to [the investors], nobody wanted me to use their name. They were Madoff’s biggest fans — and ultimately his sales force.”

And why wouldn’t they be loyal? One former investor had made enough money to help put his child through college.

“Also, if you ask questions, he would take you out of funds,” she says.

As the deadline for the Barron’s article approached, she called Madoff one more time and left a message telling him the story would run, regardless, so this would be his last chance to respond.

Suddenly, he was available.

“He claimed to be in Switzerland,” says Arvedlund, who spoke with Madoff for about 10 minutes.

Within those 10 minutes, she would not get much valuable information.

“What I do is proprietary,” he responded. “I don’t really want to go into it.”

Arvedlund says he also said he couldn’t understand why other investors or experts in options were saying they couldn’t replicate his return.

“They must not be doing it right,” said Madoff.

In truth, he wasn’t trading options — or anything.

“He was just using a complex strategy of a cover for the fact that he was running this fraud,” says Arvedlund, who admits that at the time, she had no idea he was running the Ponzi scheme — or that this was fraud. “All I knew is he wasn’t doing what he said he was doing — and that the numbers didn’t add up.”

The backlash from the article was minimal. She never heard back from Madoff.

“No angry phone calls,” she says.

She would later find out that it was Madoff’s sons who were upset, and that the Monday after the article published, they called a staff meeting and told everyone not to pay any attention to the article.

Harry Markopolos, a Boston-based accountant, tried to blow the whistle on Madoff years ago, when Arvedlund was writing the Barron’s piece.

At the very same time the Barron’s article was published, Markopolos had begun writing letters to the SEC, exposing Madoff in the Ponzi scheme. Nobody listened to either of them.

“I didn’t know this at the time,” says Arvedlund, who had moved on from the article. “I figured either I’m crazy, or this guy is just so powerful that nobody wants to hear it.”

Plus, there were distractions. Major distractions, such as 9-11, followed by the stock market cratering and the Internet bubble that burst.

‘They finally got him’

“Life goes on,” says Arvedlund, who worked at Barron’s for a few more years before leaving to work as a contract freelance writer for the New York Times. From the Times, she headed back to The Moscow Times for two years before returning to the U.S. and working briefly for another newspaper. And then, she gave up on her journalism career.

She landed a job on Wall Street as an analyst, working in startup hedge funds, performing research, digging up dirt on company heads, working in client relations, helping investors, working on anti-money-laundering projects, investor relations, doing everything, she says.

“I really needed the money,” she says. “And in a way, I’m glad I left journalism for a couple of years.”

Today, Arvedlund lives in Philadelphia, where her husband works as a lawyer, but she visits Marblehead whenever she gets the chance. Because her mother is an active artist, she visits each summer to view her mother’s work in the annual Festival of Arts. When she fell in love with Patrick, a history buff who loves the Marblehead area, she came back last year to marry him at Star of the Sea Church, and had her reception at Boston Yacht Club.

The money she made on Wall Street afforded her the wedding of her dreams, and working in hedge funds gave her the experience to understand how they worked.

“I don’t think I would have had the background necessary to understand how Madoff was basically creating fake investor statements,” she says. “Basically, he fictionalized everything.”

Oddly, Madoff ran a legitimate brokerage firm, making him a rich man, but in the end, he utilized his business as a storefront — a cover for his fraud.

When Arvedlund was laid off in December 2008, her husband was thrilled to spend more time with his new wife. But a week later, as she watched CNBC announce that Madoff had been arrested, Arvedlund’s world would change.

“I was in my pajamas in mid-afternoon,” she says as she watched CNBC. “Oh my God, they finally got him,” she remembers thinking. “But I didn’t know for what.”

Once she learned the extent of Madoff’s fraud and the number of people affected, she was stunned. And a few weeks later, when she got a call from a publisher asking if she wanted to pick up where the original Barron’s story left off, she was working again — on her first book.

“Too Good to Be True” tells a story that begins with Madoff’s career on Wall Street as an actual innovator in the stock market, decades before online trading.

“He was a rich guy through a legitimate business,” says the author. “But he ran this side operation that turned him into a monster.”

Today, many people are thinking about it and calling their money managers to ask questions, like “What are you doing with my money?”

“That’s a good thing,” says Arvedlund. “Pain is a very powerful teacher.”

How Madoff, the ‘Man Without a Soul,’ Hustled His Victims From the Shadows

The heartless fraudster, who died in prison Wednesday, preyed on rich but unsophisticated investors. There were no winners.

Allan Dodds Frank

Timothy A. Clary/Getty

If there ever was a con man on Wall Street who could sell crime by the slice, it was Bernie Madoff . His sweet smell of success was spiced with the idea that somehow his customers believed he was cutting them in on insider trading without the risk of being caught.

Madoff—who died in a North Carolina prison on Wednesday at the age of 82—succeeded by being opaque about his business dealings with clients while promoting himself enough to be regarded as The Mensch of Wall Street. He convinced customers he was doing them a favor by taking their money. He leveraged his seeming philanthropy, especially to Jewish causes, into becoming the caretaker for some of those very charities.

Bernie, as he was known, built his customer base by carefully targeting rich people who made their money in retail, real estate, manufacturing and other businesses, but who were not financial wizards familiar with the machinations of Wall Street or who were not likely to review their accounts closely. His Ponzi scheme, the biggest ever prosecuted, generated nearly $50 billion in fictional profits on top of the $20 billion in cash it actually took in.

“Madoff was a highly successful fraudster totally devoid of conscience who would hit on widows at funerals and take their husbands’ fortunes, leaving them, rather than in comfort, in poverty, as they got old. He did that without a thought routinely,” says John Moscow, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney who specialized in global fraud cases before joining the legal team at Baker Hostetler that as bankruptcy trustee recovered $14 billion from Madoff and his family, his clients, his associates, and the institutions that dealt with him.

He ultimately parleyed his “good deeds” into defrauding Nobel Peace Prize Winner Elie Wiesel and Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, and Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax among hundreds of others.

Right after Madoff was arrested in 2008, I went to a black tie event for a Jewish charity in New York looking for victims. On a hotel escalator, I caught up with Wilbur Ross, who had made hundreds of millions taking companies out of bankruptcy and later became Secretary of Commerce in the Trump Administration. Ross, who also had a mansion in Palm Beach where Madoff recruited many of his marks on the golf course and at charity events, told me that Madoff had created such a reputation for himself that he was known jokingly as “The Jewish T-Bill.” (Treasury Bills being celebrated for risk-free reliable returns.)

Madoff’s clients thought they were getting a special deal, so much so that for years people beseeched him to allow them to invest with him. It helped that he was a stone-cold liar who would take their money with a smile. At social gatherings and charity events, on fancy golf courses in New York and Florida, at ski resorts or fishing tournaments or even at funerals, he would set the hook when people were at ease—or distracted. Over the years, thousands of investors, including hedge funds and wealth managers, flocked to his Ponzi scheme. It expanded until it got too big to succeed as Madoff sought new victims in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

Although detected repeatedly, Madoff’s long-running Ponzi scheme survived a half dozen investigations and stock market hiccups, thanks to good lawyers and his ability to deceive people.

His former defense lawyer, Ira “Ike” Sorkin, who also served as a federal prosecutor and a Securities and Exchange Commission regional enforcement chief, now tells The Daily Beast that Madoff should have been caught far earlier.

“The SEC blew it, sadly. It really hurts to say that because I have a great deal of fondness for the SEC, but they missed the boat on this. They didn’t ask the right questions. They didn’t follow up or they would have caught him much sooner. What would have happened then is they would have ended the Ponzi scheme.”

As early as 1992, an accounting firm called Avellino & Bienes, run by two men who had worked with Madoff’s father-in-law, got in trouble with the SEC about its clients’ investments with Madoff. Behind the scenes, Madoff scrambled to raise enough money to cover all the claims 100 percent, and the SEC decided to drop further pursuit since there were no financial losses to investors. Later questions raised by Barron’s and stock analysts also ultimately were headed off and deflected by Madoff.

But by 2008, his Ponzi scheme had thousands of investors and was too big to survive hordes demanding to cash out at once. Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities claimed alleged assets on paper of nearly $65 billion and had only about $20 billion in real money in all of its accounts as the stock market plunged during December 2008. His scheme was so huge that he could not recruit new investors to pay the hundreds of clients demanding cash. Within three months following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, Madoff investors had asked to redeem more than $12 billion from their accounts, a sum he could not produce nor stall until the storm blew over.

As Sorkin notes: “Ponzi schemes have to end at some point if the market keeps going up which is never inevitable. Crazy schemes succeed, but when the market turns and people want their money back, that’s when the bottom falls out. I think he knew all along at some point in time the bottom was going to fall out.”

Many of his long-term clients got hit the hardest, especially by the so-called clawbacks by the U.S. government and the Madoff bankruptcy trustee who together recovered almost $17 billion of the $20 billion or so the clients had actually invested. Those loyal Madoff clients got killed because over the years they thought their accounts had been growing steadily as they left their initial capital with Madoff. What actually happened is that over the decades they had withdrawn 100 percent or more of the money they had actually given Madoff. All of those fictional returns did not count and the government and trustee demanded paybacks. Several people committed suicide and hundreds, if not thousands, went broke. As bankruptcy Trustee Irving Picard said in a statement after Madoff died: “The pain experienced by the victims of Mr. Madoff’s fraud is not diminished by his death...”

So how did Bernie build his life of crime? How could he be guilty of what U.S. District Judge Denny Chin called “extraordinary evil” as he sentenced Madoff to 11 felonies and 150 years in prison? What were the secrets of his swindle that allowed him to live a rich life of deceit for decades, apparently without blinking?

Sorkin says: “I think his genius was to remain in the shadows. He never advertised. He never went out and solicited money. People begged him to take their money and I think that was the problem. The word got out that he was making these returns which on their face far exceeded returns along Wall Street and yet for years people kept giving him money. He kept running the Ponzi scheme.”

Those who suspected Madoff’s results were too good to be true avoided him, including former President Donald Trump who claimed that he declined an offer to invest with Madoff and in 2019 turned down his pardon request.

“People did stay away from him,” Sorkin says, “but the people who gave him hundreds of millions of dollars, billions of dollars, had dollar signs in their eyes. There was no transparency and that’s not a criticism of the investors, but it seems the same thing goes back to the heydays of the boiler rooms like Stratton-Oakmont back in the 90s. As long as I’m getting my money tripled in two weeks, what do I care how it’s being done. And you know that’s don’t ask questions, just keep sending those checks.”

Starting in 1960 with a small firm trading over-the-counter penny stocks, Madoff built a real business in the shadowy corners of Wall Street before grafting on questionable practices and customers originating from an accounting firm once run by his father-in-law.

Over the decades, Madoff ingratiated himself with Wall Street insiders as he moved up the ladder as the over-the-counter market migrated to a new electronic stock exchange in 1971. At various times, he served as non-executive chairman of NASDAQ, chairman of the National Association of Securities Dealers and testified before Congress as a Wall Street expert. He was well acquainted with influential people such as Arthur Levitt, who had been chairman of the American Stock Exchange before becoming chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the decade before Madoff’s firm collapsed, he and his firm numbered among the biggest customers at JP Morgan Chase.

Bernie portrayed himself as a feel-good story, a man who climbed over the obstacles of a middle-class upbringing, a second-rate education, and class struggle in financial markets by founding a firm with $5,000 that reached the pinnacle.

His initial success was running a small firm that handled odd lot stock trading, often processing the odds and ends of trades for fewer than 100 shares for bigger firms. That process led people to believe that Madoff, as an aggregator of small trades, had access to inside knowledge generated by order flow.

His firm paid other firms to place trades through his company. In exchange, the presumption by some was that he obtained prime information—an early read—on how investors were reacting to stocks as they were bought and sold. To some investors, that meant Bernie must be making money as an insider trader. They presumed that like a butcher who put his thumb on the meat scale, Bernie was profiting illegally, trading in front of the order flow which meant he knew which stocks were headed up —or down.

As the NASDAQ market grew, so did the side of Madoff’s legitimate business of clearing stock trades, so much so that at one point his firm was handling more than 10 percent of over-the-counter trades daily. Naturally people thought his investment advisory business was authentic too.

His family social profile was living large, but not too large... living at the level befitting a successful Wall Street investment banker, with a Manhattan penthouse, a Montauk home on the water with a well-equipped fishing boat, a home in Palm Beach and a pied-a-terre in Europe. But, as John Moscow points out, Madoff was not living—as some fraudsters attempt—as though he was “the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. In terms of asset recovery from the Madoffs (personal property), it was not much.”

Over the decades, Madoff became close with the Wilpon family, the majority owners of the New York Mets, and many players. They invested family money, company money and players’ money with Madoff in nearly 500 accounts. The Wilpons were ultimately sued by the bankruptcy trustee for more than $1 billion and settled for $162 million in clawbacks. The custom blue satin Mets baseball jacket that the Wilpons gave to Madoff when he accompanied the team on a tour to Japan sold at the trustee’s bankruptcy auction for $14,500. (One of the many minor questions that linger: The jacket has never been seen since.)

The beauty of Madoff’s giant Ponzi scheme was that he did not trade stocks at all for his accounts, even though he and his co-conspirators fabricated documents to make it appear they were buying and selling blue chips. Most people who had invested with him for years were content to accept the 10 percent returns he claimed to be making and left the bulk of their money in his hands. Many would take an annual withdrawal that he would cover with funds brought in by new investors.

He ran a family firm with his brother Peter, his two sons, and his wife, Ruth, all involved and reportedly confined to the fancy offices on the 19th floor of the Lipstick building on Manhattan’s east side. He segregated on the 17th floor a small coterie of highly paid assistants who helped him fabricate trades for the accounts. Ruth apparently was unaware of how his secretaries confidentially made massage parlor appointments for him and reservations for his hotel assignations with girlfriends.

His family turned him in to federal authorities the day after he confessed to them in his penthouse that the investment business was a colossal fraud. His defense and all the family lawyers claimed that Bernie was the only Madoff in on the crime. Whether that is true is moot. No other family member was charged with the Ponzi fraud and only his brother Peter went to prison on tax charges.

On Wednesday, Madoff died at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, suffering from kidney disease and renal failure. Both his sons predeceased him, his son Mark by suicide on the second anniversary of his father’s arrest. His wife ultimately scorned him and thousands hated him. As one of his victims told me: “He is suffering as much as a man without a soul can.”

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READ THIS LIST

This biographer exchanged emails with Bernie Madoff from prison for a decade. Here’s what he learned

• Richard Behar's new biography, "Madoff: The Final Word," takes readers into the fraudster’s final years in prison, and all that came before.
• Madoff saw a psychologist while he was in prison, and listened to NPR in the mornings.
• After running a Ponzi scheme for decades, Madoff found that new life was somewhat of a relief, Behar writes.

You probably haven't heard Bernie Madoff 's name in awhile, but that doesn't mean the infamous fraudster's story is over, or the pain he inflicted.

Irving Picard, an 83-old court-appointed trustee, still spends his days trying to claw back money from the those who benefitted from Madoff's Ponzi scheme, and to reduce the staggering losses of others.

More than 100 legal battles over the greatest known fraud in history still rage on.

Richard Behar, who has just published a new biography, " Madoff: The Final Word ," is also still trying to understand how Madoff's mind worked. What allows a person to rip off Elie Wiesel , who survived the Holocaust and went on to become a main chronicler of it? Or to sit with his wife, Ruth , in a theater and enjoy a movie while knowing that he's erased the life savings of thousands of people all over the world?

Those questions haunted Behar — who tells CNBC he has long been fascinated by con-artists. So long after most other reporters had turned their attention elsewhere, he reached out to Madoff while the financial criminal served out his 150-year prison sentence in North Carolina.

Behar started by sending his condolences to Madoff, whose son, Mark, had just died by suicide in Dec. 2010, the second anniversary of his father's arrest.

Shortly after, an email subject line popped up in Behar's inbox: "Inmate: MADOFF, BERNARD L." That message was the start to a decade-long relationship between the two men, including roughly 50 phone conversations, hundreds of emails and three in-person visits. When Madoff died in April 2021, Behar was still writing the biography. Madoff often complained to Behar that he was taking too long on the book.

"He once joked that he'd be dead when it came out, which of course turned out to be true, although I never planned it that way," Behar said.

CNBC interviewed Behar, an award-winning journalist and contributing editor of investigations at Forbes, over email this month. (The conversation has been edited and condensed for style and clarity.)

'He never asked me one personal question'

Annie Nova: You write that you're an investigative reporter with "a special fondness for scammers." Why do you think that is?

Richard Behar: I've always been mesmerized by how the brains of scammers work. I'm especially intrigued, maybe obsessed, with scammers who steal from people who are very close to them — like Madoff did.

A scamster who I visited in prison in the 1990s did something similar. Until Bernie's arrest, this guy ran the lengthiest known Ponzi scheme ever, for 11 years. He was orphaned and raised by an aunt and uncle, and yet financially devoured them, as well as his cousins, his wife's parents, his best friend — even a nun who he charmed with his alleged faith in god. I wasn't raised by my biological parents either, and spent my childhood in foster homes. I couldn't pretend to imagine doing that to people who stepped up to care for me, but it's endlessly fascinating to me. Maybe that's where that fondness for scammers is rooted.

AN: Did Madoff take any interest in your life?

RB: Through a nearly decade-long relationship, he never asked me one personal question. That was mind-boggling. I'd sometimes give him openings, like telling him I grew up in a town not far from his hometown — with a similar but poorer Jewish subculture — but he said nothing. He couldn't care less. I asked a psychologist about this, and she theorized that Bernie was such a malignant narcissist that he couldn't "hold my reality, he could only hold his own." I couldn't be a three-dimensional human being to him, because if he can imagine that, he'd have to imagine the school teacher who has lost a pension.

AN: What was the most remorse you saw him show over what he'd done?

RB: I once asked if he could ever forgive himself for the Ponzi itself, and he said "No, never." He insisted he felt great remorse for those who he stole from. But I never totally felt it. Never a tear. I asked why he didn't cry at his sentencing, and he snapped: "Of course I didn't cry; I was cried out."

'Prison was a great relief for him'

AN: How did Madoff say life in prison changed him?

RB: He never talked about it. He once described himself as feeling numb. I said, "I can't imagine what it would be like." He replied, "You don't want to know, you don't want to know."

In some ways, I think being in prison was a great relief for him. Running a half-century Ponzi has got to be exhausting. In prison, he'd typically wake up in his cell at around 4 a.m., make coffee in bed with an instant hot water machine, then read, or listen to NPR until breakfast. He worked in the kitchen, then the laundry room and then oversaw the inmates' computer room.

That last job cracked me up because he told me he could barely turn a computer on in his office, which should have been a red flag to everyone at the company that he wasn't actually trading stocks.

AN: You write that he was seeing a therapist in prison. Do we know often this was, or for how long it lasted? Did it seem to be helping him?

RB: He ended one phone chat abruptly because he had to get to one of his weekly appointments with his psychologist. When he called me afterwards, I asked how it went. He laughed and said it was helpful, that she was a "terrific lady" and that he thinks he should have done therapy years before. But even if the sessions were helpful, he said he never found the answers he sought about why he did the fraud and why he hurt so many people.

He was disturbed by press reports that called him a sociopath . He said he asked his therapist, "Am I a sociopath? A lot of clients were friends and family — how could I do this?" Bernie claims that she told him that people have the ability to compartmentalize, like mobsters that kill and then go home and hold their kids.

You just put it out of your mind. I asked if she came up with a diagnosis. He said, no, just a compartmentalizer. Maybe she told him that to make him feel better since he wasn't ever getting out.

AN: For so many years, it sounded like Madoff was just waiting to be caught. Is that right? Did he always know he wouldn't be able to get away with this? What was living in that suspended state like for him?

RB: Bernie said he was under constant stress over the Ponzi, and would talk out loud to himself sometimes in the office, because of the pressure. One of his biggest outlets for relieving the stress was sitting in dark theaters with his wife Ruth, he said, watching movies twice a week. He also said he deluded himself into thinking some "miracle" would come along to bail him out of the Ponzi, but that he knew for at least the last decade before his arrest that he'd never get out from under it.

The only time he truly relaxed, he said, was on weekends when he was out on his yacht. I interviewed a former FBI behavioral analysis expert who suggested Bernie felt safe on the boat because he could see 360 degrees around him, all the way to the horizon, so he'd have a lot of forewarning that a threat was coming.

'Not a single investor' had complained to the SEC

AN: You paint a really interesting portrait of the figure of Irving Picard, an 83-year-old court-appointed trustee, who has spent years trying to get money back for Madoff's investors. Has this been Picard's only job over the years? Why has he made this his life mission?

RB: Picard rarely talks with the press. I was just chatting with John Moscow, a former chief white-collar crimes prosecutor for the Manhattan DA's office who worked on some Madoff cases for the trustee. He said: "Irving is a very faithful public servant." He's laser focused on his task. John's words were: "He's not manic about it, but he's very close."

In my book, I quote a former federal prosecutor saying that you can probe this case for 50 years and still not get to all the truths, but Picard isn't interested in that. It's been his only bankruptcy case since four days after Bernie's arrest in 2008. He is ferocious towards net winners who won't return funds, but he can be a soft teddy bear with those who don't have the money for him to claw back. He may let them pay it over time, or he'll take someone's house but leave them a life interest in it.

AN: What do you think people get most wrong about Madoff?

RB: A lot of people who lost money get it wrong by blaming him entirely, rather than looking in the mirror and asking themselves how they could have put themselves in such danger. Madoff's consistent and high returns were simply not possible. Even so, many net losers think the government owes them because the SEC didn't capture Bernie. But that agency's mandate has never been to protect people from stupid investment decisions.

I mentioned to you that I went to a prison back in the '90s to visit the guy who had the longest-running Ponzi prior to Madoff's arrest. Just like Bernie, that swindler could not have done it without a big bank's complicity. In that case — an 11-year-long Ponzi — an investor reached out to the SEC to complain that he'd lost money even though he'd been guaranteed a preposterous 20-25% return. The scamster was arrested the following day.

In Bernie's case, not a single investor over the half-century of his fraud contacted the SEC. They were too busy splashing around in the gravy.

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Breaking news, the man behind the monster: bernie madoff’s life in prison and his reflections on crimes.

In 2011, Bernie Madoff, the financier convicted of the biggest fraud in history, was six months into a 150-year jail sentence in the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, NC, when he contacted journalist Richard Behar, thanking him for his condolence card after the death of his son Mark.

“That first email stated that Madoff was seeking to add me to his contacts list,” writes investigative reporter Behar in “Madoff: The Final Word” (Avid Reader Press). “I had the option of accepting or blocking him forever. 

“In hindsight, I sometimes wish I’d chosen the latter.”

Over the course of the next decade, the men exchanged more than 300 emails, with Behar often sending Madoff money to pay for his Internet access in prison.

There were dozens of handwritten letters, more than 50 telephone conversations and three in-person interviews as Behar set about writing his account of the Ponzi scheme that saw Madoff swindle investors out of some $68 billion. 

At their first face-to-face meeting at Butner, Madoff ran through his daily routine, from working in the kitchens to reading books, Leon Uris’s 1953 novel “Battle Cry” being a favorite.

Behar also brought a stack of quarters so Madoff could avail himself of the jail’s vending machine.  “No, you have to do it,” he said to Behar. “I’ll have a Diet Coke.” 

“Ouch,” writes Behar. “The greatest fraudster in history was not allowed to touch a coin. A billionaire who was once among the biggest market makers at the New York Stock Exchange not permitted now to get a soda for himself.”

The scale of the deception explained in “The Final Word” beggars belief.

“Sixty-eight billion bucks, laid end to end in dollar bills, would encircle the Earth approximately 265 times. Now add another 104 circles to calculate the fraud’s value in today’s money: $100 billion, give or take a billion,” explains Behar. 

“That’s nearly 2 million times what the average American worker earns in a year.”

At the time of his arrest on Dec. 11, 2008, Bernie Madoff had more than 4,900 active clients, with another 40,000 people whose investments had passed through Madoff’s company, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities (BLMIS).

In total, there was an estimated $68 billion of assets attributed to Madoff and his investments but, as Behar points out, there was actually less than $300 million left in his coffers.

“Madoff made $68 billion disappear almost overnight,” he writes. “Bernie had engineered the greatest known fraud in human history.”

The victims were individuals and family trusts, colleges and charities, hedge funds and pension funds. 

Even banks entrusted Madoff with their money. 

Among the high-profile targets were movie maestro Steven Spielberg and entertainment mogul David Geffen, talk show host Larry King, actors Zsa Zsa Gabor, Kevin Bacon and John Malkovich and Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax.

The world’s richest woman, Liliane Bettencourt, was also conned, as well as the International Olympic Committee and some New York universities. 

“Those financially harmed — destroyed, in many cases — by Bernie reads like a Who’s Screwed Who in the sports, business, entertainment, academic, and philanthropic worlds,” writes Behar. 

Madoff didn’t care who he defrauded.

When Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize for Peace winner Elie Wiesel entrusted him with the money of his Foundation for Humanity, the non-profit organization nearly went under, losing $15 million.

Wiesel and his wife, Marion, also lost their life savings of $12 million. 

“We thought he was God, we trusted everything in his hands,” said Wiesel, whose mother and sister were gassed on arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944.

When Behar asked Madoff about whether he had any regrets about Wiesel, he simply replied: “He’s full of shit, that guy.” 

In Behar’s account, the disgraced financier also reveals how he turned down sports icons like Michael Jordan and Derek Jeter, despite approaches from their financial advisors, and how Donald Trump, in his 2009 book ‘Think Like a Champion: An Informal Education in Business and Life’, claims he saw through Madoff.

Not so, Madoff told Behar. “You know, he claimed that he never invested with me, which is true. And he said that I approached him, which is not true. I never approached him for anything,” he said. 

“You know, that’s typical Trump, to say he was smart enough not to invest.” 

Over the course of his conversations, however, Behar found a man who was capable of contrition. “What I did was terrible. I’ll never forgive myself,” he told him. “But it’s not like I planned it. If I did, I would have done it better.”

Madoff was also adamant what happened simply wasn’t the real him. “I know it’s hard to imagine, but I’m not a gambler,” Madoff told Behar. “I never played cards. Never bought lottery tickets.” 

The problem for Madoff was two-fold. 

On one hand, there were the clients who never carried out due diligence.

“That kind of blind faith is a Ponzi scammer’s lifeblood,” writes Behar.

The other issue was that as events outstripped him, it left him with no way out of the giant hole he had dug for himself by taking so much money from friends, relatives, and strangers.

Madoff was in too deep – and it took its toll.

“After a while, you start bulls–tting yourself to believe what you want to believe. And then you just block it out of your mind. I was going nuts,” he told Behar. 

“Sixteen years of doing this [Ponzi]. Not telling your wife and sons. I don’t know how I stood the stress. I woke up every morning for sixteen years feeling I’m not coming out of it. 

“I was hoping for some kind of miracle.”

Madoff’s duplicity also impacted his family.

On the second anniversary of his father’s arrest, Madoff’s oldest son Mark, 46, who worked at BLMIS but never faced criminal charges, hanged himself with his dog’s leash as his 2-year-old son, Nicholas, slept in a neighboring room in his Manhattan apartment. 

Further tragedy followed in September 2014 when Madoff’s other son, Andrew, died from cancer, aged 48. 

Diagnosed with lymphoma in 2003, his cancer went into remission but returned in 2011, something Andrew Madoff attributed to stress caused by his father’s arrest. 

“They believed in me; they looked at me a certain way, and then all of a sudden they felt betrayed, and I understand that,” Madoff told Behar by phone.

Richard Behar would speak with Madoff for over 10 years. “Bernie said often that he was counting on my book to set things straight and was upset that I still hadn’t published it after a decade of work. 

“He complained in an email that he’d probably be dead by the time it came out.”

And so it came to pass.

After suffering with chronic kidney disease for several years, Bernie Madoff died at Butner’s Federal Medical Center on April 14, 2021. 

Shortly after his death, Behar sent Madoff another email “curious whether it would just vanish into the bowels of Butner, or if I’d receive a response”. 

He did get a reply, albeit automated.

“Inmate 61727054 — MADOFF, BERNARD L no longer has access to the Trust Fund Limited Inmate Computer System; therefore, he/she may not send or receive messages.” 

The reply amused Behar. “The email seemed to suggest that Bernie was still out there somewhere, bumming quarters, a tattered Leon Uris novel in his pocket,” he writes. 

“In fact, he is nothing but ashes.” 

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