London in New York

Take a long hot bath like Frank “Frankie Five Angels” Pentangeli

LIFE offers us a choice as to which side of human history we choose to put ourselves on.  In the case of the Madoff Affair, there are far too many unanswered questions, a number of which shall remain unanswered as a result of Mark Madoff’s suicide (the devastated wife and children he leaves behind) Bernie Madoff’s imprisonment and Madoff Insider, Jeffry Picower’s ill timed death (or conveniently timed depending on your perspective) . Andrew Madoff is left with a choice whether to work to restore his citizenship, image and standing in the civilized world or to fall on the sword and preserve the confidences for the members of his clan while using public relations operatives behind the scenes to paint a picture of him as a victim on equal footing with Madoff’s real victims. It is an untenable position and even Andrew must know that.  He stands in the cross hairs of human history. The longer he remains at large the more it undermines confidence in our entire system.

The Madoff Fraud is ongoing. It did not end with the capture, trial and jailing of Bernie Madoff.  Stage two commenced with the Madoff Sons “turning in” their father after his confession to them that the whole thing was “one big lie”. The confession helped to lay the groundwork to begin the process of perpetuating the fiction that managing corporate executive insiders, who received their business training at elite schools like the University of Michigan and The Wharton School who were the sons and family members of the CEO and who lived and breathed the family business 24/7 were somehow “left out of the loop” on the true full nature of their fathers criminal enterprise, thus absolving them of liability as accomplices to the massive fraud, so that if they had to return some money they could have a basis or justification for holding on to part of it.  As printed in New York Magazine’s Daily Intel shortly after “the confession” an interesting anecdote about the family influence in financial technology:

After all, as Mark Madoff told Wall Street + Technology back in 2000: “All of his family members grew up with this being our lives. When it is a family operated business you don’t go home at night and shut everything off.  So you take things home with you, which is how all of us grew up.”

But, this would seem to conflict with a report in the Wall Street Journal:

At the 2009 lunch with his former employee, Mark Madoff talked about how payments or gifts from his family didn’t seem odd to him. “I grew up and my dad had money,” Mark Madoff told the trader. “It was always around. I didn’t ask where it came from.”

Consider today’s Financial Times in an op-ed stating that Madoff was Wall Street’s problem:

“No one knew exactly what Mr Madoff was doing but there were suspicions in parts of Wall Street that he was either front-running his broking customers or operating a Ponzi scheme.”

As further reported in the Wall Street Journal, in a conversation with Kimberly Unger, executive director of the Securities Trading Association of New York:  ”he understood he would have to give up the Nantucket home but hoped that he could keep some of the money he learned from a legitimate career in trading”. The chutzpah,sort of like the guy who drives the car to a murder scene and says, “I had no idea what he was doing in the house but I think I should be able to keep the Rolex I found in the kitchen while I was waiting for him to finish up”.  You think I am kidding? Andrew Madoff has a proof of claim for deferred compensation owed to him filed with the court in the Bankruptcy estate of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLP.

Make no mistake that everything said or done since the date of the confession has been in that vein by anyone with a Madoff name or representing Madoff interests. Any time a Madoff speaks, whether it is Ruth, Bernie or one of his sons, family members, lawyers or surrogates, like a politician they stay on message with the intended goal of eliminating the idea of complicity by other family members.  Consider further Stephanie Morgan’s statement:  “My husband Mark took his own life and regardless of what you feel about my father-in-law and his monstrous crimes, Mark’s children are innocent victims and this is tragic for them,” she said. “I am devastated and now raising two small children alone.” Is this a message to the trustee and victims to leave her alone?

Case in point: According to published reports, Madoff biographer Jerry Oppenheimer, the self serving Ruth Madoff “is totally disgusted and blames Bernie for their son’s death” and she believes “this is the end of the family” and others have thus speculated further that no matter what kind of monster he is, “Madoff  himself has paid the ultimate price. He has his son’s blood on his hands”. Behind bars in Butler, North Carolina where Madoff is serving his 15o year sentence at what has been referred to as Camp Fluffy, “F–k my victims,” Madoff reportedly said. “I carried them for 20 years, and now I’m doing 150 years.” He told other inmates that his only crime was taking money from those who were “rich and greedy and wanted more.” You will have to forgive me for my cynicism when I say that I sincerely believe that Ruth and Bernie are reading from the same script or talking points designed to leave an impression with the public that obfuscates the complicity of the entire family in the fraud. Keep in mind that any time a Madoff speaks and gets press, it is towards that end.  They and those counseling them from Ira Sorkin to Martin Flumenbaum have to recognize that in a reality driven culture, the Greek tragedy that plays out like a soap opera on the blogosphere and in the newspapers covering  Madoff family infighting will some how catch hold rendering some or all of Madoff’s complicit family members sympathetic figures in the eyes of the public.

Mark and Andrew turning in their father Bernie Madoff was but a brilliant ploy, a ruse which has not and will not put them in the clear with Madoff Victims or those of us still watching. Truth is that Andrew Madoff could not have been any more of an insider at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLP than a monkey would be an insider if he climbed into your butt.  Capische?  Andrew Madoff thus stands at a crossroads, a veritable nether world figure without one foot in hell and one in the free world above ground…. for the moment. As I see it, If Andrew Madoff is not gonna come clean about the family business but is going to hide behind the skirt of his Black Umbrella and go to the grave with honor protecting family secrets that destroyed countless American families, 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. This world and this country has no further use for citizens with this kind of character, nor should it. Sweet dreams you sonofabitch.