Bernie Madoff was investigated eight times in the last sixteen years by the SEC and never once did anyone uncover the ponzi scheme? That's according to the Wall Street Journal.
While SEC officials had their guts ripped out of them by Congress today, Harry Markopolos, a former investment manager, declined to appear at the last minute. He's the guy who wrote to the SEC three times, telling them that Madoff couldn't be making the profits he claimed by investing legally. According to Markopolos' lawyer, he is ill with a sinus infection and will eventually testify voluntarily.
Meanwhile in New York, Bernie and Ruth Madoff appeared before a federal judge after prosecutors asked to have their bail revoked. While you and I were forgoing holiday shopping--car sales alone were down 35%, it seems the Madoffs were sending out packages filled with mittens, inexpensive cufflinks, along with heirloom jewelry valued at $1 million. This is chutzpah, because they sent the valuables to their sons, brother, and other family members, all of whom might be implicated in the scandal although Bernie claims he did it alone.
But my favorite Madoff story comes from the maven of plastic surgery, Joan Rivers, in her interview Sunday in the New York Times Magazine.
Deborah Solomon's interview with Rivers ended like this:
I love my life, except for losing all that money with Ruth and Bernie. I’m pleading with you, please say, “She lost a bundle with Bernie Madoff.”
Did you?
No, but everybody is walking around now saying that, and that shows that you used to be very rich.
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