Scandal of a century ends with a whimper
Scandal of a century ends with a whimper
That’s it? The biggest alleged financial swindle in history wrapped up faster than you can say ‘bezzle’?
By Rob Cox, breakingviews.com
Last Updated: 5:56PM GMT 11 Mar 2009
As hard as it may be for Bernard Madoff’s $65bn worth of victims from Israel to Colombia and Milan to New York’s Upper East Side to accept, the scandal appears to be a case closed.
Madoff is expected to plead guilty this week in a Manhattan court to 11 felony charges, which come with a 150-year prison sentence.
As hard as it may be for Bernard Madoff’s $65bn worth of victims from Israel to Colombia and Milan to New York’s Upper East Side to accept, the scandal appears to be a case closed.
Madoff is expected to plead guilty this week in a Manhattan court to 11 felony charges, which come with a 150-year prison sentence.
Madoff provided the exclamation point to the panic of 2008. The peaceful conclusion to the tale is almost a let-down. When Charles Ponzi’s eponymous scheme crashed in 1920, defrauded investors stormed the gates of his house. Madoff’s Park Avenue abode is quiet. His well-heeled clients will be caught in a mostly meaningless legal debate over “forfeiture calculations” – meaningless because the money has vanished.
A long, hard-fought trial would have been welcome entertainment. But no, Madoff will not take off where Enron bad-boys Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, or Tyco’s Dennis Kozlowski left off. No pleas of innocence or rationalising of shower curtain purchases. And there will be no crusading prosecutor to exploit the publicity. Of course, some New Yorkers may see that –no new Rudy Giuliani – as a blessing.
Madoff’s tearful alleged confession was a private affair – no public drama. That’s a deviation from the standard con-man behaviour. Think of Samuel Israel. Not only did he defraud the clients of his Bayou hedge fund, he faked his own death and went on the lam for three weeks.
It’s not quite over yet. Prosecutors might turn up some smoking-gun document. But it looks like the world will have to do without titillating tales of, say, crooked associates, unlikely accomplices, connections to the Mossad or vengeful Russian mobsters.
Madoff’s alleged fraud set new standards for scale, duration and the reputation of the victims. But his drama is set to end with a whimper. A 70-year old man in a Barney’s overcoat will probably soon check in to a corrections facility, where he will quietly spend the rest of his life.
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