Madoff with the Money
Summary
The reference has not verified this book in detail; the summary states only what the title, author and subject establish.
Jerry Oppenheimer is a celebrity biographer who produced this quickly after Bernard Madoff's arrest in December 2008. The book concentrates on Madoff's personal and family background, his origins in Laurelton, Queens, his early career, his family relationships, and the social world of Palm Beach and Long Island in which he raised money.
The reporting is based on interviews with people who knew Madoff socially and professionally, including former classmates, neighbours and employees. It is biographical rather than financial: readers wanting to understand the mechanics of the fraud, the feeder fund structure, the role of the Securities and Exchange Commission examinations, or the bankruptcy recovery process will not find them here.
The reference has not verified this book in detail. It was written within months of the arrest, before the trustee's litigation, the criminal trials of Madoff's employees, and the substantial later reporting by Diana Henriques, Erin Arvedlund and Richard Behar. Readers wanting the fraud's mechanics should go to Henriques or Markopolos; readers wanting the most recent account should go to Behar.
Key takeaways 5
- Madoff raised money through social and religious networks in which membership substituted for due diligence.
- The legitimate market-making business Madoff built gave him a reputation that the investment advisory fraud borrowed.
- Oppenheimer's account concentrates on family and social history rather than on how the fraud operated.
- Madoff's early career and family background were unremarkable, which is itself relevant to how long the fraud went undetected.
- Books produced within months of a financial scandal necessarily precede the legal record that establishes what happened.
Who should read it
Readers interested in the social networks through which the Madoff fraud recruited investors, with the caveat that this entry is not verified in detail and better accounts exist.
Where it sits in the reference 2
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