Bernie Madoff’s oldest son, Mark, has taken his own life. Some questions:
Bernie Madoff: Was the scheme, the grandeur of living the life of a wealthy man, worth the price?
United States Attorney, Southern District of New York: Did you intend to exact the death penalty in your zeal to push the envelope as far as you possibly could?
Media: Are you satisfied that your unquenchable thirst for salaciousness, to suck every drop out of the Madoff story, finally produced something truly disgraceful?
Irv Picard: Has Baker Hostetler earned enough yet?
Us: When is enough enough? Do we ever reach the point where we are sated?
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Perfect post. Brief, and brutally to the point. Not that the USDA – SDNY or the press give a rat’s tuckus about the damage THEY cause. Especially the pressies, they aren’t done yet; remember how long they were able to milk the deaths of Michael Jackson and Anna Nicole Smith
Bernie Madoff is a predator who preyed on some of the most vulnerable members of society, the elderly. He was able to look them straight in the eye and take their life savings, knowing he would be bankrupting them and that they would never get it back. It’s unfortunate that his son chose to do this, but frankly I’m surprised Madoff himself hasn’t had his skull caved in against a prison sink yet, and perhaps it makes me a terrible person to say it, but I can’t say I’ll be too sad if it does happen.
Don’t wish harm on others, no matter how bad they are. Trust me on this.
See, now I have to take it back. You’re not a jerk. I was wrong.
Yeah, it sucks when people are called to account for the crap they do. Why, the guy who plunged a knife into my son’s back 4 times didn’t MEAN to kill him, so why are you punishing his family by prosecuting him for murder? It was clearly manslaughter, and accidental at that. I mean, why are you not releasing him? His father died 2 weeks earlier, can’t you see that he wasn’t in his right mind? Etc, etc.
I know many of the people involved in Madoff’s scheme, and a whole lot of them knew for absolute certain that what Bernie was doing was criminal. Many brokerages simply would not do business with him or any of his associates, including his son. The fact that Mark heard footsteps is no reason not to recover most of the cash that Bernie bilked out of friends and family.
For the record, neither I nor anyone in my family invested with the Madoffs. But we certainly knew that he was dealing falsely, and refused to deal with him, as did many, many others. The individuals who lost money were almost exclusively non-sophisticated investors. They deserve some recompense, at the expense of the more sophisticated people who knew that 30% returns in every market are simply a mark of fraud, but who relied on their expertise to get out before the crash.
Did it make you feel better to get all of that out?
I generally don’t wish harm on others, and if Bernie Madoff lives out the rest of his days reading mystery novels at Lompoc, that is fine with me. What I’m saying is that it’s hard for me to feel bad for someone who did such horrible things to so many people and for so long when the collateral consequences of their actions come back to haunt them. I don’t wish death on Madoff or any of his family. But when bad shit happens to him as a direct or indirect result of his behavior, it’s hard to feel any sympathy. I fully acknowledge that this is probably a shitty way to feel, but hey, at least I’m being honest.
Interesting how the number of people who knew for certain that Madoff was dealing falsely seems to be about equal to that of people who were shocked, absolutely shocked that this nice man was stealing. Where were y’all?
“Predator” is so overused as an epithet. If you’re not a predator, you’re prey. Predation is in our genes; humans didn’t get to the top of the food chain by being ruminants.
Of course I’m using predator as an epithet, as Bernie Madoff sought out the weak to take advantage of them, much like the predators of nature seek out the weakest of the herd to prey upon them. And I’d also argue that the term “predator” applies a lot more to the actions of someone like Madoff than to today’s humans at the top of the food chain, as the predatory nature of humans as it relates to food has long since been lost with industrialization and modernization.
Reporting his moves to the SEC, which stalled, and asked for more opinions, and claimed that there wasn’t enough evidence, and refused to respond to reports of malfeasance. The reports of the SEC’s behavior have been in the papers for 2 years, haven’t you seen them?
And Scott, it was just as good for me as it was for you.
Yes, I’ve seen them. And the scam went on for 20 years. And I recall a Harry Markopoulos making a report, not you or all the other folks you refer to in your post.
But your point is well-taken nonetheless.
Harry Markopoulos made more reports than most, especially those that made the media. I did not claim that I personally made reports, only that companies as diverse as Bear, Stearns on the one hand and at least 2 boutique investment firms did, and were ignored.
But of course, only the MSM is a good source of news.
It bears remembering that Mark Madoff was not convicted of anything, or even indicted as far as I know. If you MUST be angry at someone, perhaps you could focus your anger at the people who have actually done wrong.
Orthogonally, this seems awfully biblical to me. Yeah, Bernie Madoff makes a lousy Job — hardly a righteous man. But, like Job, at least a lot of the punishment visited upon him has been visited on him by proxy. His children die, and his reaction is, “why does this stuff happen to ME?” (It’s not like the authors didn’t understand about parents’ love for children; consider Absolam.)
So now we know what sentence some people would like that’s worse than “life, plus cancer”: “life, and your son dies.”
The Book of Job has a happy ending: Job gets well, gets money, and gets new kids. My theory is that the author never did have a family.
Life.
Life plus cancer.
Life plus cancer and your son dies.
It’s got to end somewhere. There may be one man for whom no depth of hell is sufficient, but Bernie Madoff, bad as he is, isn’t that man. So where does it end?