It is stunning to me that Bernard Madoff has been allowed to continue to live in his multi-million dollar Manhattan penthouse apartment instead of being housed in a jail cell. It has been over two months since he was picked up for what is “believed to be the largest financial fraud in history.” (CBS News) How is it that someone can swindle (read that steal) billions of dollars from people and not go to jail? Granted, he is under “house arrest,” but that allows him to stay in his lavish surroundings. Any regular person – you or I – would have been not only in jail, but “under the jail,” as my mother used to say.
I guess that technically I should say that he “allegedly” stole billions since he is accused and has not been convicted. Yet there seem to be a lot of people who have documents bearing the name of his Wall Street investment company that they thought entitled them to funds that just do not exist because he never invested any of their money. There is no evidence that he ever bought a single stock or bond. He never made a single trade (at least not since 1993, according to Harry Markopolos, the man who figured out Madoff’s scheme), even though he took money -- 50 billion dollars in money – from his “investors.” That would make every statement that he sent to each of his investors a fabrication, a lie. And no one seems to know where all of that money is now.
And while he sits in that Madison Avenue penthouse? Hundreds of people who trusted him have had their lives turned upside down. One woman waiting outside of a bankruptcy court told reporters, “I’ve lost everything. I’m now on food stamps and may have to move into my car.” Another told of having to move her elderly mother into a Medicaid-funded assisted living facility, as she packed up their apartment to move in with a friend, “while this man sits in his penthouse and smirks.”
The people he stole from run the gamut from the extremely wealthy of New York and Palm Beach and Hollywood celebrities to people who were in on the investments by virtue of their being part of a retirement program, e.g., the Carpenters’ Pension Fund of Syracuse, New York. (CBS News)
According to a segment on the CBS news show, “60 Minutes,” Madoff’s modus operandi was an “affinity scam,” described by Harry Markopolos as an operation where the investor preys on groups similar to oneself. Madoff is Jewish, so one group on which he ran his scam was Jewish investors. One such investor was Elie Wiesel. Wiesel is an author, political activist, and Holocaust survivor. In 1986 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his “powerful message of peace, atonement and human dignity.” What does this man of peace have to say about Bernard Madoff? He told CNN news that Madoff is “[o]ne of the greatest scoundrels, thieves, liars and criminals.” Wiesel cited the devastation to foundations, hospitals, and educational institutions (to name a few) caused by Madoff.
Wiesel’s foundation, which takes care of over 1,000 Ethiopian children in Israel, lost over 15 million dollars and will be unable to add the center for which they had plans in Jerusalem. Asked if he could forgive Madoff for what he has done, Wiesel replied, “No.” He explained that Madoff would need to beg forgiveness, and he knows that Madoff would not ever do that.
Wiesel’s punishment for Madoff is well thought-out, I believe. Appropriate to the crime, as it were. His plan would be for Madoff “to be in a solitary cell with a screen, and on that screen, for at least five years of his life, every day and every night there should be pictures of his victims, one after the other, always saying, “Look, look what you have done to this poor lady; look what you have done to this child; look what you have done.” And that, of course, would be a minimum punishment. Wiesel is quoted in news stories as saying, “It shows, again, a human being is capable of both very great, good things and very horrible things.”
As of today, Madoff is fighting to keep $62 million in bonds and cash that he says is “not related to the fraud charges against him,” he continues to live in that 7-million dollar Manhattan penthouse, although he is possibly on the verge of making a plea deal.
