April 27, 2011 | 10:21 am

Author Diana Henriques talks about her new Madoff book, “The Wizard of Lies”

Posted by JewishJournal.com

Interviewed on the Today Show earlier this week, New York Times financial reporter Diana Henriques, author of the Madoff tell-all, “The Wizard of Lies,” talks about her new book, the Madoff family and the investor’s fear of failure.

Henriques discusses Madoff’s early history with covering up major financial losses, one of which dates back to the 60s, adding that he appeared to have a tremendous fear of ruining his reputation.  She later reveals that she does not believe Bernie Madoff’s family was aware of any illegal activity. 

Henriques has interviewed Madoff twice in prison.  “The Wizard of Lies” came out yesterday and is available on Amazon.

Watch the full Today Show interview below.

HuffingtonPost.com has a Q&A with the Henriques here.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

February 28, 2011 | 7:50 pm

The Madoff Tapes: NY Magazine editor talks about his piece on Bernie Madoff [AUDIO]

Posted by JewishJournal.com

NPR interviews NY Magazine editor Steve Fishman on his coverage of Bernard Madoff and audio clips that have recently been released.

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February 16, 2011 | 10:19 am

From Prison, Madoff Says Banks ‘Had to Know’ of Fraud

Posted by JewishJournal.com

From NYTimes.com:

Bernard L. Madoff said he never thought the collapse of his Ponzi scheme would cause the sort of destruction that has befallen his family.

In his first interview for publication since his arrest in December 2008, Mr. Madoff — looking noticeably thinner and rumpled in khaki prison garb — maintained that family members knew nothing about his crimes.

But during a private two-hour interview in a visitor room here on Tuesday, and in earlier e-mail exchanges, he asserted that unidentified banks and hedge funds were somehow “complicit” in his elaborate fraud, an about-face from earlier claims that he was the only person involved.

Read more at NYTimes.com.

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February 16, 2011 | 10:18 am

Madoff Speaks from Prison

Posted by Susan Freudenheim

In a lengthly, far reaching article based on Bernard L. Madoff’s first prison interview, which took place Tuesday, Feb. 15, as well as a series of emails from December and January, Diana B. Henriques reveals that Madoff believes some of the banks “had to know” what he was doing during the 16 years that he conducted his Ponzi scheme.

From the article, published in today’s New York Times and at nytimes.com:

“‘They had to know,’ Mr. Madoff said. ‘But the attitude was sort of, “If you’re doing something wrong, we don’t want to know.”’

“While he acknowledged his guilt in the interview and said nothing could excuse his crimes, he focused his comments laserlike on the big investors and giant institutions he dealt with, not on the financial pain he caused thousands of his more modest investors. In an e-mail written on Jan. 13, he observed that many long-term clients made more in legitimate profits from him in the years before the fraud than they could have elsewhere. ‘I would have loved for them to not lose anything, but that was a risk they were well aware of by investing in the market,’ he wrote.”

Henriques also describes Madoff as being surprised by how much harm his crimes had hurt his family, and said he was told he would not be allowed to attend his son, Mark’s funeral after Mark’s suicide in December because officials did not have enough time to plan for it, and because of “the pubic safety issue”.

The article also reports that Madoff has been working with Irving H. Picard, the trustee assigned to recover assets for victims of the scam, and met with Picard’s team last summer.

Reading the article, one comes away shocked both by his wonderment at his family’s pain and at his apparent lack of concern for his victims. While taking responsibility for his own deeds, he apparently doesn’t show remorse about the havoc he has wreaked on such a wide swath of people. This continues to be one of the most tragic, hate-filled and mesmerizing train wreck stories of our times, whose full outcome, as the claims continue to pile up, will not ultimately be determined for a long, long time.

Henriques is writing a book on Madoff “The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust,” which Times Books expects to publish in the spring.

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December 11, 2010 | 11:21 am

Madoff Son Hangs Himself

Posted by Rob Eshman

A year ago two New York artists, who had lost their life savings in the Madoff scandal, threw a big, last New Years bash at their West Village apartment which they were forced to move out of.  The invitation read, “. PLEASE join us for a last fling ... give this 1855 Grand Dame a proper send off. Madoff will be hung in effigy.”

A year later the cheeky invite feels a bit haunting with news that convicted swindler Bernard Madoff’s son Mark was found dead in his New York apartment.  The 46 year old investment banker had hanged himself with a black dog leash. As the Los Angeles Times reports:

Reporting from New York — The oldest son of Bernard Madoff committed suicide on Saturday morning, his attorney said.

Mark Madoff was found by family members in his New York apartment Saturday morning, according to law enforcement sources.

The sources said that Madoff hanged himself using a black dog leash and was found by his father-in-law.

Saturday is the second anniversary of Bernard Madoff’s arrest in what is thought to be the largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history.

Madoff, 46, was the head trader at his father’s firm.

Mark and his younger brother Andrew Madoff, who also worked at the firm, have denied they knew about the fraud.

“Mark was an innocent victim of his father’s monstrous crime who succumbed to two years of unrelenting pressure from false accusations and innuendo,” his lawyer, Martin Flumenbaum, said in a statement.

Mark and his brother were never charged with any crimes.  But authorities are continuing to investigate the complex web of fraud that ensnared so many in the Madoff Ponzi scheme, and destroyed so many lives and institutions.  Just this week Irving Picard , the trustee tasked with reclaiming Madoff’s stolen funds, filed a $19.6 billion lawsuit against Austrian banker Sonja Kohn, accusing the former Monsey, N.J. resident of orchestrating a massive “feeder fund” of European investors that enabled Madoff to continue his deception. 

Over the past two weeks, Picard has gone after charities as well, filing hundreds of “clawback” lawsuits against organizations who benefitted financially from Madoff’s fraud.  The charities were not accused of taking part in the fraud, but federal law requires them to give back their gains nevertheless.  In most cases, these same charities, such as the American israel Cultural Foundation,  were the victims of Madoff, seeing their finances collapse when the gig was up.

The Madoff sons themselves are the target of multiple awsuits. In 2009, they and two other family members were sued for almost $200 million by Picard, and according to The Times, earlier this week Picard filed another suit in a British court.

Picard’s actions and ongoing criminal investigation, not to mention the enormous guilt and shame, may all have contributed to Madoff’s son suicide.  Mark and Andrew originally went to authorities to turn their father in after he confessed his crimes to them on Dec. 10, 2008. A day later Bernard Madoff was arrested.  Many people have speculated that once Madoff’s house of investment cards collapsed, he and his sons orchestrated the confession in order to shield his sons from prosecution.

Now, Madoff is in federal prison in North Carolina serving a 150-year sentence.  I can only imagine a father’s anguish of hearing about his son’s death.  I wrote in the days after the scandal broke that I only wish Jews believed in hell, because Bernie Madoff deserved a place there.  Now, I think it’s fair to say he’s arrived.

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February 25, 2010 | 9:56 am

Madoff family changing name to ‘Morgan’ - Can you do better?

Posted by Jay Firestone

The Madoff family is looking for a name change and quite frankly, I don’t blame them.  “Morgan” would be the new name, according to HuffingtonPost.com.  But, my only issues is, where’s the Jew in Morgan?

If you’re a Jewish family and you’re forced to change your name, at least pick something that sounds Jewish.  Morganstein. Morganowitz. Schwartz. Stein. Berg. 

Anything but Morgan.  They’re stripping themselves of their Jewish identity as they baptize their surname.  I’m sure this community of online readers can do better and with that said…

Let the official Madoff family name suggestion begin (post your suggestions in comments)!

HuffingtonPost has the story:

“Madoff” isn’t a four-letter word, but it might as well be.

The daughter-in-law of the man who cemented the Madoff name in history alongside that of Mr. Ponzi is trying to shed the infamous moniker.

Stephanie Madoff, the wife of Madoff’s son Mark, has filed papers asking that her and her children’s last names be changed to Morgan in light of the fact that her father-in-law was “recently featured prominently in the news for defrauding numerous investors in his companies.”

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November 10, 2009 | 2:36 pm

Madoff’s Personal Items Up For Auction

Posted by JewishJournal.com

Click here to download the full Madoff catalogue.

From NBCNewYork.com:

It’s time for another Madoff auction, and this time, the public has a shot at owning some of Ruth and Bernie’s more personal items.

The U.S. Marshals Service has collected 599 items from the Madoff’s Upper East Side apartment, which will be auctioned off at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers this Saturday.

Gaston and Sheehan Auctioneers will sell off dozens of fur coats, jewelery, and watches to the highest bidders, in addition to some everyday items that give a glimpse into life as a Madoff.

Read the full story at NBCNewYork.com.

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October 22, 2009 | 1:55 pm

Madoff + ponzi + fights + cocaine + sex = Tony Soprano?

Posted by Jay Firestone

CNN has recently reported that a new lawsuit alleges that Bernard Madoff used funds to finance “a cocaine-fueled work environment and a “culture of sexual deviance,” [while] he diverted money to his London, England, office when he believed federal authorities were closing in at home.”

Between $50 million in embezzlement, fights in prison, and now the alleged use of funds for drugs and sex, there’s really only one questions left to ask…

Is Madoff a Jewish Tony Soprano?

It’s not like waste management is that different from running a hedge fund.

From CNN.com:

A new lawsuit alleges that convicted swindler Bernie Madoff financed a cocaine-fueled work environment and a “culture of sexual deviance,” and he diverted money to his London, England, office when he believed federal authorities were closing in at home.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in New York’s State Supreme Court, was brought on behalf of former investors and seeks unspecified punitive damages and compensation.

Beyond that, it offers a look at what the plaintiffs’ attorneys say was once Madoff’s multimillion-dollar empire and what is now his world in a federal prison in North Carolina.

Among the allegations in the 264-page lawsuit are that during the mid-1970s, Madoff began sending employees to buy drugs for company use.

The complaint alleges that some employees and investors were aware of the drug purchases, and that BMIS [Bernard Madoff Investment Services] was known by insiders as the “North Pole” in reference to the excessive amount of cocaine use in the work place.

Read the full story at CNN.com.

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