Bernie Madoff Told the Truth About One Thing

A bigger villain than all of Wall Street? Photo-Illustration: Megan Paetzhold. Photo: Chris Hondros/Getty Images Bernie Madoff died today, and he leaves behind a legacy of financial wreckage that stretched around the globe. His Ponzi scheme was the largest in history, wiping out some $65 billion in gains, albeit paper gains. The longevity of his scheme — decades — was breathtaking. He was without a doubt one of the most accomplished liars in history.

When he was caught in 2008, as the financial crisis gripped America ever tighter, Madoff became a poster child for the misdeeds of that entire universe. The banks had pushed us to the brink of national ruin. But theirs was a complicated fraud, including such arcana as securitized bonds and overleverage. Their crimes weren’t easy to understand. Madoff, on the other hand, looked you in the eye, shook your hand, and then cut the shirt off your back. That was straightforward.

I talked to people who pointed out that simple arithmetic could prove that his claims about returns on investment were impossible.There weren’t enough options in the world to do what he said he was doing. Had they been true, the size of his investments would have been like a hurricane in the markets. But the markets didn’t show a ripple.

Of course, Madoff wouldn’t let them in to see it. Once or twice he did, and at least one of those times, he set up a fake trade. He claimed he was trading with Europe while hiding the trading partner in a closet down the hall. There were so many red flags. He used outdated dot-matrix computer paper. When privileged customers complained of losses, he “corrected” them. He backdated returns to offer tax advantages.

One day soon they’ll be saying much the same about D****d T***p.

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