London in New York

The curious case of certain media figures, society elites and editors of mainstream media outlets who wax poetic. express sorrow or who are otherwise engaged in exploring or rationalizing sympathy for the sins of the father (Bernie Madoff) being visited upon the sons or the burdens they bear for having the name Madoff is in my estimation a seriously misguided waste of compassion; as for their children or the grandchildren of Bernie Madoff well thats an entirely different story.  By way of repeating points that I have previously made in other blogs (and also made by leading journalists covering the Madoff affair from the very beginning) when you consider assessing the relative culpability of Madoff’s sons and begin to feel sympathetic for the adult children of the criminal mastermind who were managing directors in the family business, ask yourself first the critical question, Did the Madoff Sons Know?  Then ask yourself,  how did they not know?

Mark & Andrew Madoff knew well enough to take their money and personal assets out of the family business in 2000, 8 years before the scheme collapsed, had the foresight to leave $2 million parked in the Mark & Stephanie Madoff Foundation, and held a great portion of their assets (personal and foundation assets) in Real Estate and with banks and investments accounts in other firms. Andrew apparently lost “several million” but what is that in the grand scheme if you are otherwise left in tact financially while the world crumbles around you?  The chutzpah that these ass clowns can sit there and say “oh yeah we lost money too” and even our jobs as if somehow that places them in the sames shoes as the Madoff Victims. All the more ironic considering the phenomenal and consistent returns that their money managing wizard of a father got for their other clients right? And that he did so……with no evidence of having executed any trades for 13 years.  Now that is truly phenomenal. As stated to me by a rather learned and experienced friend who shall remain anonymous:

“What is amazing to me is that all these huge firms who looked at him (for potential investors), and saw that the CUSIP Numbers on the trades did not match (because there were no trades) never blew the whistle on him prior to 2008! One does not need to be a murderer to be a psycopath!”

Bernie Madoff was was creating money and profits out of thin air without having to execute trades and place money at risk. Think about that for a minute. This is not a case of a guy making less than perfect, unreasonable or even negligent or high risk investments subjecting his clients to unforeseen risk; he was simply taking their money and redistributing it among his band of thieves, an inner circle or curious characters operating in New York and Palm Beach,  and having enough on hand to pay out investors who needed to cash out while he continued to operate the Ponzi scheme.  Yet all the while the Madoff Brothers collected salaries, bonuses and no interest, non-repayable loans well in excess of the profits earned by the business that they were running.  They used that money to fund lavish lifestyles without ever considering the source of those funds?  Come on now you know better than that.  Call it creative estate planning or disaster planning for the day when the inevitable happened, the fraud was discovered or had to be revealed. That it took is so many others so long to to realize that it was all just “Too Good to be True”, despite the warnings by knowledgeable investigative journalists and whistle-blowers is not relevant?  The actions of the Madoff Brothers suggested that they implicitly recognized that their critical funds were safer elsewhere.

How these two brothers have credibility or remain in good standing  in anyone’s eyes is baffling when their status was that of highly WELL EDUCATED (University of Michigan and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania) and technically SAVVY, ADULT, INSIDERS in a CRIMINAL FAMILY ENTERPRISE, protected only by the fiction of the proverbial CHINESE WALL between broker dealer and asset management divisions, which the Trustee discovered was largely a fiction. As MANAGING or CHIEF TRADERS at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLP you  think they might have realized that their father had not executed a trade on behalf of client accounts in 13 years.  I guess they missed that while they were busy buying vacation homes, rolexes and assorted other gifts and trinkets for their trophy wives, girlfriends, partying with topless women or fly fishing with their girlfriends.  Simply put, to not recognize that the MADOFF SONS WERE COMPLICIT and accept that MARK MADOFF’S SUICIDE WAS AN ADMISSION OF COMPLICITY one would have to be doing BONG HITS repeatedly for days on end.  It is a little like having Sympathy for the Devil when certain elements in the media and society at large choose instead to focus on expressions of sympathy for the screws tightening on poor Andrew Madoff (Can’t a fraudster catch a break?) or any other family members when many ordinary people, honest hard working Americans were literally wiped out. You will excuse me for having contempt for those seeking sympathy for the misfortunes of the Madoff sons when the misfortunes of Madoff Victims are still very much at issue. If Andrew Madoff is not gonna come  clean about the family business but is gonna go to the grave with honor, then perhaps he may want to take a long hot bath like Frank “Frankie Five Angels Pentangeli in the The Godfather and do the right thing.

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website