Too Good to Be True: The Rise and Fall of Bernie Madoff - Erin Arvedlund

Despite all the headlines about Bernard Madoff, who pleaded guilty to running a $65 billion Ponzi scheme, he is still shrouded in mystery. Why (and when) did he turn his legitimate business into a massive fraud? How did he fool so many smart investors for so long? Who among his family and employees knew the truth?

The best person to answer these questions—and tell the full story of Madoff's rise and fall—is Erin Arvedlund. In early 2001, she was suspicious of the amazing returns of Madoff's hedge fund, which no one could explain. Her article in Barron's, based on more than one hundred interviews, could have prevented a lot of misery, had the SEC followed up.

But almost no one was willing to believe anything bad about "Uncle Bernie"—so nice, so humble, so generous to charities. As Arvedlund shows, Madoff was no ordinary liar, but a master of the type of lies people really wanted to believe. He kept his clients at a distance and allowed handsomely paid friends to solicit new ones for him; playing hard to get created an irresistible mystique.

Now, Arvedlund tackles the tough questions that are still unanswered in the wake of Madoff's collapse:

Did he start off as a legitimate money manager or was he a fraud from the beginning? Were there indications of larceny at the very start of his career?
Why did Madoff's biggest supporters within the industry, such as Walter Noel of Fairfield Greenwich and Ezra Merkin of Gabriel Capital, ignore the warning signs that were so apparent? Did they choose to remain ignorant as long as their commissions rolled in?
Why did SEC investigations fail to catch Madoff's Ponzi scheme even though several people had voiced concerns about his operation?
Who else helped Madoff carry out his scam? His family and close associates have denied any involvement, but was it possible for one man to engineer a heist of such scope?

With her keen investigative eye, Arvedlund presents a sweeping narrative of Madoff's career—from his youth in Queens, New York, to his early days working for his father-in-law, to his time as chairman of the NASDAQ exchange, and finally to infamy as the world's most notorious swindler. She offers a riveting glimpse of Madoff the man—an indifferent student with little ambition who transformed himself into a star with a talent for trading, a reputation for innovation, and an unmistakably erratic nature.

Readers will be fascinated by Arvedlund's portrayal of Madoff, his empire, and all those who never considered that he might be too good to be true.

Madoff with the Money - Jerry Oppenheimer

An intriguing look at Bernie Madoff the man, and his scam

Madoff with the Money is a deeply disturbing portrait of Bernie Madoff based on dozens of exclusive, news-making interviews. From the values Madoff was taught growing up in the working class town of Laurelton, Queens to his high-life on Wall Street and the super-rich enclaves of Palm Beach and the French Riviera, bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer follows the disgraced money manager's trail as he works his way up the social and economic ladder, and eventually scams his trusting clients in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

Through Oppenheimer's in-depth reporting, you'll discover new revelations in this startling case, and become familiar with the trusting victims-ranging from non-profit Jewish charities to the likes of seemingly sophisticated individuals such as actress Jane Fonda who would "like to shake Madoff until his teeth fall out," the scion of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream empire who lost a bundle and was forced to rent out rooms in his house, and New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg. There's even Madoff's own sister-in-law and talk show host Larry King, who apparently didn't ask the right questions when he invested. All lost their much-needed life savings, while others saw fortunes small and large evaporate in the greedy financial operations of one of history's all-time charlatans.

Madoff With the Money

* Delves into the details of the illusive man that lost investors billions
* Weaves stories of Madoff's past with those of the present in an engaging and accessible style
* Explores how the financial scam that Madoff ran cost individuals and institutions billions of dollars
* Other titles by Oppenheimer: Toy Monster: The Big, Bad World of Mattel, and Just Desserts: Martha Stewart the Unauthorized Biography

While there may be other books on the Bernie Madoff debacle, none digs as deep or goes as far to uncover the truth behind the man, and his incredible scam.

Madoff: The Man Who Stole $65 Billion

In the depths of the banking crisis last year, a new financial scandal broke. Respected Wall Street trader Bernard Madoff was arrested after calmly confessing to running the world's biggest Ponzi scheme.

Creating an almost mythical status for himself as a financial genius, he took money from investors all over the world to invest, but in reality the cash was simply going into a bank account, with money from new investors going to pay off older clients.

Victims included Hollywood celebrities such as Kevin Bacon and Steven Spielberg, banks, and the super-wealthy, but many ordinary families in the US also lost their life savings in the scam.

By admitting all his crimes and refusing to blame anyone else, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison in June, and did not face a trial.

But without a trial, many questions have been left unanswered. How did he fool so many people, for so long? Why didn't the US authorities realise earlier he was operating a massive fraud right under their noses?

And the question asked most frequently by his victims: where's the money gone?

This is an in-depth investigation that attempts to answer these questions, detailing a fascinating history of the boom years on Wall Street before the bust.

Bernard Madoff - Masterminding a Billion Dollar Fraud

Bernard Madoff - Masterminding a Billion Dollar Fraud is a book which details the facts and history behind the fifty-billion dollar ponzi scheme orchestrated by one-time wallstreet heavyweight Bernard L. Madoff who was believed to be running a billion dollar hedge fund, which now will go down in history as the largest ponzi scheme in history. This work looks into the life of Bernie Madoff, the scandal surrounding the collapse of his investment firm, and the details surrounding this horrible crime. Bernard Madoff - Masterminding a Billion Dollar Fraud is recommended for those interested in learning more about the Bernard Madoff and this unbelievable fraud.

Catastrophe: The Story of Bernard L. Madoff, The Man Who Swindled the World - Gerald Strober

In December 2008, amidst a world gripped by financial crisis, Bernard Madoff, a respected fund manager, and former chairman of NASDAQ, was arrested by the FBI for reportedly bilking thousands of trusting investors out of $50 billion.

In the first comprehensive account of this financial mastermind's epic Ponzi scheme, Catastrophe exposes the real story behind Madoff's upstanding façade—his confession, his family's involvement, and his unlikely rise and incredible crash. With first-hand victim accounts detailing the personal and business effects of the disastrous crime, the book peels back Madoff's persona layer by layer, revealing how he developed his elaborate deceit, and how and why, ironically, he targeted and scammed the world of Jewish philanthropy.

Through interviews with Madoff's friends and colleagues, the authors draw a picture of Madoff from his ability to use his easy-going charm and country-club sociability to gain entry into influential circles to his Machiavellian financial acumen capable of building and sustaining a towering fraud. Catastrophe defines and explains the whole debacle—how he seduced and persuaded sophisticated investors, how he eluded SEC watchdogs for years, and how his far-reaching crime has affected the world.

Complete with the famous whistle-blower letter to the SEC, a list of victims, SEC filings and more, Catastrophe offers a complete look at the white-collar crime of the century that will leave the reader both astounded and in disbelief.

Deborah and Gerald Strober are the authors of oral histories of the Kennedy, Nixon, and Reagan presidencies and of oral biographies of Queen Elizabeth II, the Dalai Lama, Billy Graham, and Rudy Giuliani. Their latest book, Israel at Sixty, was published in February 2008. The Strobers live in New York and in Herzliya-by-the-Sea, Israel.

Madoff's Other Secret: Love, Money, Bernie, and Me - Sheryl Weinstein

Nobody knew Bernie like I did, and nobody knows about me...

Sheryl Weinstein met Bernie Madoff when she was just shy of forty, and went on to have a twenty-year secret, intimate relationship with the man now known as an evil mastermind, a villain of the greatest proportions.

It was 1988 and Sheryl was facing a huge dilemma. Bernie Madoff was paying her a great deal of attention. She was in the midst of a rocky marriage and feeling vulnerable, when the powerful Wall Street mogul began making overtures. As a successful CPA and head of a major charitable organization, she had a lot to lose. She directed him to take things slowly.

Over the next five years, there were business meetings over lunch, followed by intimate dinners in hotel rooms and finally, private moments that for a time seemed intensely satisfying to them both. "I'm not to be trusted," he once told her casually. She ignored it, having no idea how prophetic those words would be. After all, her relationship with Bernie was passionate and profound. She felt desirable. She was the one nobody knew about, with the window into the real man. So careful about investing her money, when the SEC cleared him in 1992 she decided to get in all the way--with her heart, her soul--and her financial future.

Sheryl was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She couldn't possibly have imagined the devastation that would befall her. Learning the truth was shattering on so many levels.

Many books are being written about the scale of Madoff's fraud, but until now, nothing has shown the man through private eyes. Sheryl Weinstein's riveting story reveals a Madoff who will shock and surprise you. From the boardroom to the bedroom, in each other, the two found something that had been lacking in their own lives. It's a story with tragic overtones--a drama that only now could find a devastating conclusion.

Betrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff - Andrew Kirtzman

It was an inconceivable deception: over $65 billion stolen in the world's largest Ponzi scheme.

Including new and revealing interviews with those who worked closest to him and his family, Betrayal is an in-depth, penetrating look at the man who perpetrated history's most notorious financial crime.

To the people who knew him, Bernie Madoff was a kind and honorable person; a loving father and husband; generous to his employees and charitable even to strangers. On Wall Street, he was known as a wise elder statesman, wildly successful in his investments but never too risky with people's money. He was so revered and trusted that thousands placed their life savings with him, and he in turn provided them with early retirements and affluent lifestyles.

But on December 11, 2008, Madoff confessed that he'd lied to them all. The monthly financial statements he'd sent customers for decades were all works of fiction. Their money was gone.

Despite the crush of media attention on Madoff's scam, little is known about Madoff himself. What could lead a seemingly good man to ruin the lives of everyone who ever cared about him? What caused Bernie Madoff to commit an unspeakable act of betrayal, bankrupting his family, his friends, his mentors, and thousands of investors who depended upon him for their livelihoods?

Betrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff is about the man who realized that he could have everything he wanted if he simply lied to the people who trusted him the most. Author Andrew Kirtzman tracked down more than a hundred people from Madoff's past, from the first girl he ever kissed to family members who played in his house as children; from his secretaries to his drivers; from traders at his company to his inner circle of friends. He pored through thousands of pages of court records; private e-mails; phone-conversation transcripts; and census, military, and immigration records. The result is a fascinating story about the rise of a deeply immoral man.

Kirtzman describes Madoff's feelings of inferiority and humiliation as a child, and his obsession with making money to prove himself worthy as he grew older. He reveals Madoff's construction of a criminal enterprise at a young age, long before he's ever claimed it began. He paints a picture of a loving yet strange family that ran a multibillion-dollar corporation like a small family restaurant. He offers an inside look at life within the company and the characters who worked on the infamous seventeenth floor. He reveals the details of an underground flow of cash that no one has known about until now. And he chronicles the desperate moments leading up to Madoff's fall, from the perspective of the people who spent the last hours with him before his house of cards collapsed.

Madoff Chronicles, The: Inside the Secret World of Bernie and Ruth - Brian Ross

After the news broke of Bernie Madoff's arrest on December 11, 2008, the facts were hard to grasp. Madoff claimed to have stolen fifty billion dollars; the sum seemed impossibly large. But of course it wasn't impossible. And that was only the beginning of the story.

As chief investigative correspondent for ABC News, Brian Ross has been on the front lines of the Madoff scandal since the beginning. Throughout the course of his investigation, he and his team have achieved unequaled access to the investigators working to unravel Madoff's fraud, and have succeeded in cultivating sources deep within the walls of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities that no other journalist has reached. Ross was even able to obtain a copy of the contents of Madoff's "little black book."

The result is an unparalleled, fly-on-the-wall view of a life of corrupted luxury and outrageous lies.

Ross chronicles the lavish lifestyle that Bernie and his high-school sweetheart, Ruth, enjoyed as the result of his ill-gotten gains and the bone-deep deceit that shocked the world with its sheer audacity. He details the layers of Madoff's scheme--from money men across the country who made millions convincing clients to entrust their wealth to Madoff, to the fabricated stock trades and false quarterly statements that fooled his victims, many of whom lost their savings, their homes, some of them even their lives, in the wake of Madoff's betrayal.

This is a true-crime drama of Shakespearean proportions, built upon the up-close investigative skills of one of our most respected journalists. The Madoff Chronicles is a vivid and chilling look behind the gilded doors of the greatest financial fraud in history.