Bernie Madoff

When it comes to Netflix docuseries, it sometimes feels as if there are only two types of people in the world: scammers and true crime villains.

(They've pled guilty to five acts of criminal conspiracies in the last six years, but who's counting.) "They just pay a fine and move on," said Chaitman. Or what about: How much scam content do we have to watch until we realize the content itself might be a scam? But the stock market meltdown caused a flurry of withdrawal requests among his investors, and Madoff didn’t have the funds to pay them all back at once. One of the most infuriating aspects of the Madoff scandal is how many opportunities the Securities and Exchange commission had to stop it. The SEC paid Madoff a visit at the time, but the officers they sent in were young, impressionable, and loath to piss off someone that could easily end up being their boss one day. [has](https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/a39185198/the-dropout-true-story-theranos-elizabeth-holmes/). Madoff affixes the worst touchstones of the true crime industrial complex to the Bernie Madoff scam, which, in our mind-numbing era of IP content, has already been told by HBO ( [Wizard of Lies](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a54006/madoff-hbo-wizard-of-lies/)), ABC (Madoff), PBS (The Madoff Affair), a handful of documentaries (In God We Trust, Chasing Madoff), and too many podcast episodes to count. Madoff goes out of its way to show just how many people aided and abetted Bernie’s ponzi scheme. [477-page report](https://www.sec.gov/news/studies/2009/oig-509.pdf) filed by the SEC’s Inspector General, the regulatory agency received “numerous substantive complaints that raised significant red flags ” about Madoff’s secret hedge fund starting in 1992. Then he spent eight years trying to get the SEC to listen to him. Perhaps that’s why Berlinger, a veteran of the true crime genre, felt he needed to dial up the drama. Instead, they argue, he was dependent on a team of people and enabled by a greedy and unregulated industry.

He pleaded guilty to running the largest Ponzi scheme in history, so if you're keen to watch Netflix's new true crime series The Monster of Wallstreet, ...

“At the end of the day, he’s a financial serial killer and the reason I say that is serial killers don’t have empathy,” he said in an interview with “One of the reasons the Ponzi continued and got ramped up on steroids is his legitimate business was starting to fail and so he used that Ponzi money to shore up his legitimate business because he wanted to be Mr Wall Street. During his sentencing hearing, Madoff apologized to his victims, saying: “I have left a legacy of shame, as some of my victims have pointed out, to my family and my grandchildren. According to Berlinger, the reason Madoff pleaded guilty to stealing $19 billion from more than 40,000 investors was not that he was remorseful but because he had also been managing a “significant chunk” of cash for organized crime and he was desperate to protect himself. “There’s no way you can look a widow in the eye at the Palm Beach Country Club and assure them that their life savings will be fine, give me your funds, I’ll take care of you, and then do that to people. Mark Madoff sadly took his own life in 2010 on the second anniversary of his father’s arrest. “The belief was that I couldn’t be doing this all by myself, that there had to be other people involved.” Ego and a sense of belonging to the big club of rich fellas that run the world. According to documents filed by the FBI at the time of Madoff’s arrest, Madoff had actually told his sons that all the family’s wealth and success were based on a lie—a huge Ponzi scheme that was crumbling under the pressure of the 2008 financial crisis. [TMZ](https://www.tmz.com/2021/04/30/bernie-madoff-cremated-north-carolina-death-certificate-ponzi-scheme/) at the time, his cause of death was revealed to be hypertension, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease. He was the former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange as well the chairman of his own company, Bernard L. Simultaneously, he and his wife Ruth and their children lived the high life, owning luxury apartments in Manhattan, an $11m estate in Palm Beach, a $4m home at the tip of Long Island, a property in the south of France as well as enjoying private jets and yachts.

Bernie Madoff was the mastermind behind a $65 billion Ponzi scheme and a new Netflix doc explores his crimes. What to know about his life and death in ...

The couple lost $3 million when [Madoff's crimes](https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/g29028290/best-true-crime-shows/) were discovered, the paper said. Ruth Madoff currently lives in a 4,000 square foot waterfront home in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, which is owned by her daughter-in-law, Susan Elkin (the first wife of Mark Madoff), the Post says. There, Madoff worked as an orderly in a section of the jail dedicated to educational programs, [CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/23/bernie-madoff-earned-710-in-prison-after-ponzi-fraud-conviction.html#:~:text=While%20in%20prison%20in%20Butner,up%20dedicated%20to%20educational%20programs.) reports. “By all evidence, they felt bitter anger to their father until the days they died,” Andrew Kirtzman, author of Betrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff, told the Post. Madoff's eldest son, Mark, hung himself in 2010, on the two-year anniversary of his father’s arrest. His sons then alerted the authorities, per Town & Country. [rare form of cancer](https://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/a41054975/clea-shearer-breast-cancer-essay/), in 2014, at the age of 48, the [Post](https://nypost.com/2022/02/26/after-recent-deaths-where-is-rest-of-bernie-madoffs-family/) reported. His two sons are also deceased now, as well. [tragedy](https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a42042587/texas-killing-fields-true-story-netflix-documentary/) in the years after his scheme came to light. Here’s everything you need to know: [sentenced](https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a39299534/elizabeth-holmes-now/) to 150 years in federal prison, per [The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/business/30madoff.html). [schemes](https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a39195993/sunny-balwani-now/) in history, which involved the swindling of $65 billion from thousands of clients, before he was caught and arrested in 2008, per [History](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/billionaire-conman-bernard-madoff-arrested).

At first glance, there is no particular reason for a four-part documentary about Bernie Madoff to come out in 2023. The fraudster and financier has been ...

The SEC “gave him a clean bill of health” on several occasions, Berlinger says. “I do believe the family was in the dark. Berlinger sees a parallel between the double life of a fraudster like Madoff, capable of presenting himself like a skilled businessman while running a business he knows is bogus, and that of a serial killer who manages to lead a secret life of crime. “I’ve done a lot of serial killer shows in a row, and that has an emotional toll,” he tells The Independent in a video call in December. “At the beginning of the show, we call him a financial serial killer, because that’s how I view him. “It was all a fraud,” Bruce Dubinsky, a fraud examiner and forensics accountant says in the documentary. “Little did I know that this FTX thing would happen,” he says, describing this latest situation as “a perfect analogy” to show that key lessons of the Madoff era have not been learned. Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street is part of a movement in true crime that has cast a new eye on white-collar crimes. “That’s the catch-22: I don’t think they’re capable of remorse, because they lack empathy.” When Netflix brought up the possibility of a Madoff documentary, Berlinger had just wrapped up a string of documentaries dedicated to various serial killers. Bankman-Fried allegedly ran a “wide-ranging scheme” to “misappropriate billions of dollars of customer funds” and “mislead investors”, per the [Joe Berlinger](/topic/joe-berlinger), the director of [Netflix](/topic/netflix)’s new documentary Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street, and I are scheduled to talk, the news cycle provides the perfect answer.

Netflix viewers have heaped praise on new docuseries 'Madoff: The Monster Of Wall Street', with many describing it as "crazy".

Bernie could’ve made it with just his legit business alone. I'm watching the Bernie Madoff documentary on Netflix, and it went on longer and was more sophisticated than I thought. [January 4, 2023] Why he started his side illegal hustle is still a mystery.” The last episode is almost like a Shakespeare tragedy.” It also features previously unseen videos of Madoff himself, following his arrest in 2008.

Joe Berlinger directs the docuseries 'Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street,' which is about Bernie Madoff and the Ponzi scheme that bilked hundreds of people ...

Our Take: One of the major aspects of the Bernie Madoff case that most people don’t understand is how the Ponzi scheme he ran got so big, and how he managed to get so many investors — big and small — to buy in. Yet, we were distracted the many reenactments, and it just seemed like a while lot of window dressing for what was already a pretty interesting story. Madoff: The Monster Of Wall Street definitely feels like a Berlinger-directed docuseries, with a heavy amount of reenactments and a bit of a sensationalist vibe. Despite his rise in the ranks of the stock world, Madoff continued the advisory business, even though he never invested any money and just used new investors’ money to pay “returns” to existing investors. It also goes over the beginnings of an investment advisory business that he operated on the side. Through archive footage, including a prison deposition given by Madoff himself during his victims’ lawsuit, interviews with Madoff employees and financial reporters, and dramatic reenactments, we get a clearer picture about the origins of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme and his motivations for doing it.

Docuseries Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street debuts on Netflix January 4. There are four episodes. Joe Berlinger directs.

He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. “With unique access to whistleblowers, employees, investigators, and victims, and never-before-seen video depositions of Madoff himself, this four-part documentary series traces Madoff’s rise from humble beginnings to one of the most influential power brokers on Wall Street.” Netflix said the project details how Madoff’s fraud was the work of more than one individual.