Bernie Madoff, Consummate Traitor on Wall Street
One Giant Ponzi Scheme Took TIme and Client's Money
You may have heard of investor fraud schemes ranging from petty to aggravated in recent years, but the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme ultimately trumps all the schemes on Wall Street multifold. If Bernie Madoff was a hurricane, he would be Katrina. Michael Milken, however, would be the less devastating 1999 Hurricane Floyd. According to Bloomberg.com, Madoff's day of reckoning will be pushed off until mid-March. Madoff's clients included Mortimer Zuckerman, publisher and owner of the New York Daily News. According to Forbes 400, Zuckerman states, "This atrocious act of Madoff trumps Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, executed in 1953 for giving atomic secrets to the Soviet Union." Truly, Madoff's long sustained assault on individual investors leaves investigators with endless and potentially damning questions. Zuckerman added, " (This) has so damaged the image and self-respect of American Jews."
According to New York Magazine, Madoff stated his Ponzi Scheme was "one big lie". This may be the greatest understatement of 2008 and 2009. His antics have cost the lives of two former clients, René-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, and William Foxton, both of whom committed suicide. The disgust for Madoff is widespread among the thousands of investors and foundations who trusted him for decades. Foundations have been stripped of all assumed worth. "Our foundation was the lifeblood of this community," said Deborah Coltin, executive director of the Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation, who entrusted an $8 million dollar foundation in Massachusetts with Bernie Madoff.
$50 billion has been schemed away from investors and Madoff is under house arrest in his Park Avenue penthouse. His deception of his numerous clients, including the Wilpon Family, owners of the New York Mets, will play out in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) with presiding judge Ronald L Ellis.
Madoff's Respect Lost
Carl J. Shapiro, a 95-year-old Boston philanthropist invested and lost nearly $200 million to Madoff's scheme just weeks before the roof caved in for Bernie. This respected elder founded the Carl J. Shapiro Institute for Education and Research at Harvard Medical School, according to the Institute's website.
The disgraced financier will likely plea guilty as growing numbers of his victim's lawyers converge in New York. The 70-year-old Madoff will likely face the rest of his life behind bars. He remains under 24 hour surveillance with his wife, Ruth, and his sons. A conflict of interest hearing is scheduled for Tuesday with his attorney leading up to Thursday's arraignment hearing.
Madoff on December 12, 2008
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