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[newscaster] It has been a week
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since Bernie Madoff
turned himself in to the FBI.
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[man] This guy had enormous credibility.
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-[woman] One of the biggest market makers.
-[man] If you can't trust him…
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-One of the founders of the NASDAQ.
-…who do you trust?
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[newscaster 2]
How could he pull this off by himself?
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[newscaster 3] It seems almost impossible.
It has to be that people were included.
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Whether they knew what they were doing
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-becomes a larger question.
-[newscaster 2] Or not. Right.
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[brooding music playing]
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[Steven N. Garfinkel] One of the unique
things about the Madoff investigation
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was the fact that it started
with a confession and an arrest,
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but we knew we had to get more.
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So as we were doing our investigation,
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we went to the 17th floor,
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and we were like…
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"Holy shit."
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It was almost like
walking into a time warp.
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It looked like the mid-1980s.
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You had these old,
big mainframe computers.
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There's reams of paper everywhere.
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There are file cabinets, boxes.
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[Keith Kelly] There are faxes
that have come in requesting redemptions.
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There are documents laying everywhere.
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Very messy,
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which is a stark comparison
to the 19th floor, which was pristine.
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[Garfinkel] The thing that always
struck me was the dot matrix printer.
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He had this old-school paper, you know,
where you tore off the sides of it.
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If you invest with
any large brokerage firm,
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nobody gets a statement
on dot matrix paper.
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[Kelly] On one desk I found
a stack of 5x8 index cards
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with handwritten columns
depicting cash activity.
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Withdrawal, deposit, ending balance.
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And the ending balances,
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I see four and a half million, and
I'm thinking, "Gee, that's a big number."
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When I looked at it closer,
I realized it was four and a half billion.
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[brooding music builds]
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[Kelly] And that's when I realized
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this is not an ordinary
white-collar crime.
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[theme music playing]
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[somber music playing]
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[employee] I started working for Madoff
around 1992, in computer operations.
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When I first went
for the interview at the office,
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it was a good conversation,
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and the salary that they offered me,
I was very happy with the salary.
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It was like, double the amount
that I made at Federal Express,
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and um, I wasn't working out in the rain.
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I was working in a nice office building,
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and I was more than excited.
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But also I was very nervous
because it was just something that
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I wasn't used to.
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When I first started,
I worked on the 19th floor.
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Everything was on the 19th floor
at that time.
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The 19th floor was beautiful.
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It was all glass,
all black and silver decor.
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Then we moved to the 17th floor.
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[suspenseful music playing]
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[employee] The 17th floor
was totally different.
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[deposition lawyer]
When you started doing the,
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we'll call it the fraudulent
investment advisory business,
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you moved the people who did that
to a separate floor?
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[Madoff] That's correct.
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We moved the whole advisory side
down to the 17th floor.
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That was in the, uh, '90s.
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[employee] I worked nights, so I saw a lot
of the grimy stuff that was going on.
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I could see where there was
some things that were kind of sketchy.
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They had an area called the cage.
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And the cage is where
everything was going down.
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You go in there and you'll see
them got, like, six-packs in there,
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and at that time, you could smoke inside.
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Now I see people coming in smashed
and go in the back with their mistresses,
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or some guys who did coke
in there, or whatever.
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And I thought that was really crazy,
you know? I was like, "Wow."
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I was real naive to a lot of this stuff
because of the fact that
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we still had very heavy hitters
in the company who are working down there,
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like Bernie Madoff and Frank.
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[Madoff] The investment advisory side,
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or the 17th floor, as it's referred to,
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was basically supervised
by Frank DiPascali.
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He just ran pretty much everything
down on that floor.
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[deposition lawyer] Is it fair to say that
Frank was in charge of the 17th floor?
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Yes. He was very talented when it came
to, uh, helping to build the system.
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He did pretty much everything.
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[intriguing music playing]
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[Ellen Hales] Frank DiPascali was a guy
that you would expect to run numbers
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or be shooting craps in the street.
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He was definitely, you know, a smart guy,
but, you know, like, a streetwise guy.
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If Frank had been a mobster,
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he would have been the one
telling people who to hit.
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Frank was Italian, he came from Queens.
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I was Italian, I came from Brooklyn.
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I couldn't relate to him.
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And I should have, I should have.
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But we were different.
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I remember hearing that
Frank was working in a gas station
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before working at Madoff,
and that he didn't complete college.
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If you were going to have somebody
run your investment advisory business,
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I would certainly think it would be
somebody who was educated.
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I could just never understand it.
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[Hales] It was very clear
that Bernie respected Frank a lot.
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And for Frank, this was an opportunity
to make more money than he ever imagined,
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and live the lifestyle he always wanted.
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I'm not sure a kid from Howard Beach
could have had the kind of yacht he had
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and the house in Jersey the way he had,
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doing anything else
but working for Bernie Madoff.
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[employee] Then there was
Annette Bongiorno.
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[chuckling] Annette…
I don't really know what she did.
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I knew that she was a heavy hitter
and she was a snazzy woman.
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Yeah, she dressed nice.
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I know Annette was making very good money.
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I know she used to have
a little drawer with cash in it.
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And she would be like,
"Go in the drawer and get such-and-such
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and order you and such-and-such dinner."
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And it was a nice little stack of money
she had in there.
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[suspenseful music playing]
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[Hales] Annette was a working-class woman
from Queens, and not a lot of education.
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A lot of the people
that were on the 17th floor,
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Bernie got them in when they were
very young, very impressionable.
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So they would be incredibly loyal
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and deferential to him
and do whatever he asked.
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Annette worshipped Bernie.
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And I think she would have
taken a bullet for him.
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She had her little team downstairs
that she controlled,
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and Bernie seemed
to rely on her quite heavily,
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particularly with his biggest clients.
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[deposition lawyer] Let's turn to Annette.
That's Annette Bongiorno?
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[Madoff] Yes.
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[deposition lawyer]And what were
Annette's day-to-day responsibilities?
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[Madoff] She handled the…
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uh… the big clients.
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[deposition lawyer] And how long
did Ms. Bongiorno work for you?
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[exhales]
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Probably 30-some odd years.
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[Hales] No matter what Bernie was doing,
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he would drop what he was doing
to talk with her.
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And I remember thinking at the time,
"Boy, Bernie really takes care of her."
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He's very loyal to his longtime employees.
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She was always going to Palm Beach.
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She was always getting some new car.
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She lived quite a life,
we thought at the time,
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for somebody who was a secretary
and a clerk, kind of, from Queens.
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[tense music playing]
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[Squillari] The investment advisory down
on the 17th floor was always very busy.
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There was always mailings going out.
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It was like a buzz of activity going on.
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And it was divided into two spaces.
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Annette had one side, Frank had another
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with the computer guys,
Jerry O'Hara and George Perez.
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[employee] My supervisor was Jerry O'Hara.
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Yeah, he looked over my work.
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As a computer operator,
I was to print out, like,
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these statements
for certain stock or securities,
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but the printers were not fast.
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They were very slow, like,
dot matrix printers and stuff.
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A typical day on the 17th floor,
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I would print out
probably 700 statements at night.
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If I had issues with printing,
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I would call them,
and they would troubleshoot it.
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They wouldn't be like,
"Leave it till the morning."
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They would want to get it done right then.
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If it came out smudged or wasn't done
the right way, they would print it over,
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and then we would mail them out
to the different clients.
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They ran a tight ship
with every little detail that went on.
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One of the reasons I chose
to be in silhouette is because
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I don't want to be part of anything
that's still going on with that case.
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I know the Madoffs did
some very bad things to some people,
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and I feel bad for the people
they did it to,
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but they were good people to me,
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and I can't say nothing bad about them.
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Bernie Madoff's fraud
was not a complex fraud.
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It involved simply taking people's money,
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telling them he was going to invest it,
and he never did.
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[suspenseful music playing]
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[Dubinsky] So, to continue the Ponzi
and perpetrate this fraud,
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he had his handful of soldiers at the
investment advisory side of the business,
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create fake trades.
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It was very easy
to create a fictitious trade
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if you know what it traded for yesterday.
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It's like going to the horse races
and betting on yesterday's horse race.
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It was just a key punch operation.
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People sat around and key-punched this
historical information into the computer
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to make it look like
they bought Amazon a month ago
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and sold it yesterday at a profit.
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George Perez and Jerry O'Hara
had computer programs
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that took the information
from the fake trades
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and put them on a customer statement,
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so when you, the customer, got it,
it looked real.
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The complexity was how many clients
he had to deal with in the '90s and 2000s.
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Almost 5,000 clients.
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It was a paper mill.
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It's an iterative process
of punching in fake trades,
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seeing what the returns look like,
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shredding those statements,
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punching in new trades
with different prices
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to make the returns even better,
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and then eventually
mailing those to customers.
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Mr. Madoff, importantly,
never provided electronic access
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for people to access
their account statements.
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He didn't want people
to have electronic access
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to see what was going on
behind the curtain.
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The 17th floor really operated,
in a sense, like a bookie operation,
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and somebody had to keep track
of all the money in and out.
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[suspenseful music playing]
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Jodi Crupi was another one
of these um, unsophisticated types
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that Bernie brought in
to be an instrumental part of the scheme.
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Her job, towards the end, was to manage
what was called "Jodi's pad."
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It was actually a tally done every day
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of the ins and outs of cashflow
from the JP Morgan bank account,
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known as the infamous 703 account,
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which represents the last three digits
of the account number,
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which we now know as the Ponzi account.
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And every day at the end of business,
the tally would be delivered to Bernie,
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so Bernie knew exactly
what came in and what went out.
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[Dubinsky]
This was very important to Mr. Madoff,
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obviously, when you're running a Ponzi,
to understand how much money you have
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to make sure you get enough cash on hand
to meet some of these withdrawal requests.
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That's why the 17th floor
was so important for Bernie Madoff.
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When you control a few people
that you can keep quiet for a long time,
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that's how you can perpetrate this fraud
for four decades or longer.
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[Squillari]
The investment advisory business,
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down on the 17th floor,
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nobody had access to it except
the employees who worked down there.
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I had a card key because I would
have to go back and forth for Bernie.
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And even when I went down,
nobody encouraged you to stay.
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Nobody wanted to have a conversation.
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[tense music playing]
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[Hales] The 17th floor was a real enigma.
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I don't know that we… The people
that I knew on the trading floor,
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that we ever really knew
what went on down there.
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We didn't talk
about the trading side to them,
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and they didn't talk about
whatever they were doing on their side.
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[intriguing music playing]
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[Andrew Cohen]
Madoff was a family-dominated firm,
234
00:14:32,623 --> 00:14:35,876
so Bernie was the top of everything.
235
00:14:35,959 --> 00:14:39,421
His family had all the key positions
on the 19th floor.
236
00:14:39,504 --> 00:14:42,507
His younger brother, Peter,
was the compliance officer,
237
00:14:42,591 --> 00:14:46,762
and Bernie gave his sons, Mark and Andy,
both very young, a lot of responsibility.
238
00:14:46,845 --> 00:14:48,221
They ran the trading floor.
239
00:14:49,348 --> 00:14:53,435
[Hales] His sons both worked for the firm
since the day they graduated college.
240
00:14:53,518 --> 00:14:56,688
[Cohen] And because they were Madoffs,
we had to listen to them.
241
00:14:56,772 --> 00:14:59,942
I thought I was a, you know,
much better trader than Mark,
242
00:15:00,025 --> 00:15:03,987
but I couldn't beat him in an argument
because he was Mark Madoff.
243
00:15:04,071 --> 00:15:06,698
Andy'd joke with me,
he said, "This is nepotism central."
244
00:15:08,825 --> 00:15:10,452
[Hales] Mark and Andy both felt
245
00:15:10,535 --> 00:15:13,372
that they needed to understand
the whole business,
246
00:15:13,455 --> 00:15:17,125
including what Bernie was doing
on the 17th floor
247
00:15:17,209 --> 00:15:18,961
with the investment advisory business,
248
00:15:19,044 --> 00:15:21,546
and Bernie wouldn't talk to them about it.
249
00:15:23,256 --> 00:15:27,344
There was this line that Bernie had drawn
250
00:15:27,427 --> 00:15:31,723
that separated the boys
from what he was doing on 17.
251
00:15:31,807 --> 00:15:33,433
[inaudible]
252
00:15:33,517 --> 00:15:37,437
[Hales] As far as I know, Mark and Andy
weren't allowed on the 17th floor,
253
00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:40,148
and it really bothered them.
254
00:15:40,232 --> 00:15:41,108
[inaudible]
255
00:15:41,191 --> 00:15:45,320
[Hales] I remember thinking
how kind of strange it was
256
00:15:45,404 --> 00:15:49,658
that he would seem
more interested in pulling Frank in
257
00:15:49,741 --> 00:15:51,702
than he was his own sons.
258
00:15:54,413 --> 00:15:56,081
Bernie basically told them,
259
00:15:56,164 --> 00:15:59,668
"I'll manage my side of the business.
You manage yours. Mind your business."
260
00:16:00,377 --> 00:16:03,046
Even his own sons couldn't question him.
261
00:16:11,013 --> 00:16:13,056
[Diana B. Henriques]
Since at least the late 1800s,
262
00:16:13,140 --> 00:16:17,894
the sign of real success on Wall Street
and in the world of finance in New York,
263
00:16:17,978 --> 00:16:20,939
was to be able to play golf all winter.
264
00:16:21,023 --> 00:16:23,358
To go somewhere
where it was warm and sunny,
265
00:16:24,192 --> 00:16:26,820
to get away from the New York slush.
266
00:16:27,988 --> 00:16:31,825
Bernie and Ruth
set their sights on Palm Beach,
267
00:16:31,908 --> 00:16:35,412
which was one of the most
exclusive enclaves
268
00:16:35,495 --> 00:16:37,622
along the eastern coast of Florida.
269
00:16:38,707 --> 00:16:41,418
They purchased a home there
270
00:16:41,501 --> 00:16:46,631
and began to participate
in the seasonal social life of Palm Beach.
271
00:16:46,715 --> 00:16:51,053
And Bernie and Ruth were accepted
as members to the Palm Beach Country Club.
272
00:16:52,179 --> 00:16:57,809
The Palm Beach Country Club, unlike
a few competing clubs of longer standing,
273
00:16:57,893 --> 00:17:00,270
was open to both Jews and non-Jews.
274
00:17:00,979 --> 00:17:05,025
Most of the Jewish families turned there
for their country club membership.
275
00:17:06,359 --> 00:17:07,861
[Leonid Feldman] I had many congregants
276
00:17:07,944 --> 00:17:10,781
who were members
of the Palm Beach Country Club.
277
00:17:12,032 --> 00:17:17,454
I came to America after being a dissident,
or what we used to call refusenik.
278
00:17:18,246 --> 00:17:20,540
I'm originally from
the former Soviet Union.
279
00:17:21,291 --> 00:17:24,920
When I applied for the position
to be the rabbi of Temple Emanu-El,
280
00:17:25,003 --> 00:17:27,422
they said, "Rabbi, do you own a tuxedo?"
281
00:17:27,506 --> 00:17:31,718
I said, "What? I rented a tuxedo
a couple of times in my life."
282
00:17:31,802 --> 00:17:34,971
They said "No, no, no,
you will need at least one tuxedo,
283
00:17:35,055 --> 00:17:37,390
because you will go
to a lot of fundraising events."
284
00:17:38,225 --> 00:17:44,898
Because Palm Beach is one of the major
capitals of fundraising in the world,
285
00:17:44,981 --> 00:17:46,691
including Jewish causes.
286
00:17:47,901 --> 00:17:49,236
From what I understand,
287
00:17:49,319 --> 00:17:53,782
to join the club, you have to show
your charitable contributions,
288
00:17:53,865 --> 00:17:57,536
in addition to the $300,000,
which you will never see.
289
00:17:57,619 --> 00:18:00,997
This is just to join, to show,
"Yes, I believe in this club."
290
00:18:01,081 --> 00:18:05,252
So, fundraising is a very important
part of life in Palm Beach,
291
00:18:05,335 --> 00:18:09,131
and that probably is
the reason why he ended up here.
292
00:18:09,923 --> 00:18:14,427
It is an interesting question.
Why did Bernie Madoff pick Palm Beach?
293
00:18:14,511 --> 00:18:16,805
He did not go to Silicon Valley.
294
00:18:16,888 --> 00:18:19,975
He did not go to Bedford,
New York or Scarsdale.
295
00:18:20,058 --> 00:18:23,937
Because in Palm Beach,
Jews are allowed only in one club,
296
00:18:24,563 --> 00:18:26,523
and this is where Madoff discovered
297
00:18:26,606 --> 00:18:31,611
that this is a very easy way
for him to get new investors.
298
00:18:31,695 --> 00:18:33,488
Make it very exclusive.
299
00:18:33,572 --> 00:18:37,659
And from what I remember, people said,
"It's impossible to get in."
300
00:18:38,326 --> 00:18:41,288
Somebody would come and say,
"I want to invest a million dollars."
301
00:18:41,371 --> 00:18:42,289
He says, "No."
302
00:18:42,372 --> 00:18:44,166
He would turn people down.
303
00:18:44,249 --> 00:18:46,251
He created this excitement
304
00:18:46,334 --> 00:18:49,713
that you had to go through somebody
who knows somebody who knows somebody,
305
00:18:49,796 --> 00:18:51,798
maybe he will take your money.
306
00:18:51,882 --> 00:18:55,385
He did you a favor
to take your five million dollars.
307
00:18:55,468 --> 00:18:56,511
He was brilliant.
308
00:18:59,431 --> 00:19:02,809
[deposition lawyer] Did you solicit
new investment advisory customers?
309
00:19:02,893 --> 00:19:05,020
-[Madoff] No.
[deposition lawyer] Why not?
310
00:19:05,604 --> 00:19:07,814
[Madoff] Because the firm
was in a position
311
00:19:07,898 --> 00:19:10,442
that we were always
turning away investors.
312
00:19:10,525 --> 00:19:14,237
We never, uh,
never solicited new monies coming in.
313
00:19:14,988 --> 00:19:18,575
As a matter of fact,
we tried to return monies at times,
314
00:19:18,658 --> 00:19:21,244
but met resistance with clients.
315
00:19:22,621 --> 00:19:25,665
[reflective music playing]
316
00:19:28,001 --> 00:19:32,172
[Bette Greenfield] My father invested
all of his money with Bernie Madoff.
317
00:19:32,923 --> 00:19:35,759
He was so impressed by Bernie Madoff.
318
00:19:35,842 --> 00:19:37,928
I mean, really, really impressed.
319
00:19:38,011 --> 00:19:43,099
The dream of Jewish people like my father
320
00:19:43,183 --> 00:19:48,605
was to earn money,
invest it and live off the interest.
321
00:19:50,148 --> 00:19:54,194
[Richard Schwartz] Originally, it was just
my father, my mother, sister and myself,
322
00:19:54,277 --> 00:19:56,112
put a certain amount of money in,
323
00:19:56,196 --> 00:19:57,906
got a return the next quarter.
324
00:19:59,157 --> 00:20:02,994
My father said, "Okay,
let's put another investment in."
325
00:20:03,078 --> 00:20:06,748
And now we included
my brother-in-law and my wife.
326
00:20:06,831 --> 00:20:10,710
And by the time 2008 rolled around,
327
00:20:10,794 --> 00:20:12,921
my kids were in it,
328
00:20:13,004 --> 00:20:14,714
my nieces and nephews were in it,
329
00:20:14,798 --> 00:20:16,049
and some of their kids.
330
00:20:16,132 --> 00:20:18,593
So this was my father's pride and joy.
331
00:20:18,677 --> 00:20:22,264
It was a legacy for him
to provide to his family,
332
00:20:22,347 --> 00:20:24,975
and he was extremely proud of it.
333
00:20:27,560 --> 00:20:32,482
[Greenfield] My father,
he had a stack of statements
334
00:20:33,358 --> 00:20:36,820
from this Bernie Madoff company,
335
00:20:36,903 --> 00:20:39,781
and he says, "Look at this,
look at how much you're making."
336
00:20:39,864 --> 00:20:42,325
He says, "This guy is brilliant."
337
00:20:43,827 --> 00:20:47,831
And I said,
"Dad, I don't understand this."
338
00:20:47,914 --> 00:20:53,211
"How come everybody else
is getting 8%, 7%,
339
00:20:53,295 --> 00:20:55,088
and you're getting 15?"
340
00:20:56,631 --> 00:20:57,924
And he said,
341
00:20:59,384 --> 00:21:00,677
the typical,
342
00:21:01,678 --> 00:21:04,389
"Don't worry your pretty little head."
343
00:21:06,016 --> 00:21:10,103
[Schwartz] A lot of his procedures
and methods struck me as odd.
344
00:21:11,479 --> 00:21:14,441
When he supposedly bought stock
at all these companies,
345
00:21:14,524 --> 00:21:17,694
we wouldn't get confirmations
for maybe two, three weeks afterwards.
346
00:21:18,361 --> 00:21:22,490
We didn't question it, but we certainly
didn't get it in a timely fashion.
347
00:21:22,574 --> 00:21:25,452
And it was very difficult
to communicate with them.
348
00:21:25,535 --> 00:21:29,664
Basically, one of the rules
we learned early on was
349
00:21:29,748 --> 00:21:31,583
he was pretty much the Soup Nazi.
350
00:21:31,666 --> 00:21:33,918
Excuse me,
I-I-I think you forgot my bread.
351
00:21:34,002 --> 00:21:35,879
-You want bread?
-Yes, please.
352
00:21:35,962 --> 00:21:36,838
Three dollars!
353
00:21:36,921 --> 00:21:38,256
[audience laughter]
354
00:21:38,340 --> 00:21:39,883
-What?
-No soup for you!
355
00:21:40,759 --> 00:21:42,886
[audience laughter]
356
00:21:42,969 --> 00:21:44,971
"You're asking too many questions?
No soup for you."
357
00:21:45,055 --> 00:21:47,515
"I'm gonna send your check back."
That's exactly the way it was.
358
00:21:49,100 --> 00:21:50,685
[Madoff] Customers would never call me
359
00:21:50,769 --> 00:21:52,979
and ask me to discuss
their statement with them.
360
00:21:53,063 --> 00:21:56,691
It was not something that
I would discuss with the customer.
361
00:21:56,775 --> 00:21:59,861
If they called me up and said to me,
"I want my money back,"
362
00:21:59,944 --> 00:22:03,698
I would say to them, "If you force me
to sell it out, I'll sell it out."
363
00:22:03,782 --> 00:22:06,076
"I'm sending your money back,
don't come back."
364
00:22:06,159 --> 00:22:07,786
People said, "Oh no, no, no, that's okay."
365
00:22:07,869 --> 00:22:10,663
"Whatever you're doing is fine.
Just keep it going."
366
00:22:10,747 --> 00:22:15,502
So, they were buying into something
that had a track record.
367
00:22:15,585 --> 00:22:19,547
It was five, 10, 15, 20 years going
when they got involved.
368
00:22:19,631 --> 00:22:21,424
So what's there to doubt?
369
00:22:21,966 --> 00:22:25,595
[Feldman] Did people trust him more
because he was Jewish?
370
00:22:25,678 --> 00:22:29,391
Yes. Perhaps there is an element of,
"Oh, he's one of us."
371
00:22:29,474 --> 00:22:33,478
"He's a contributing member
of the society, of the community."
372
00:22:36,648 --> 00:22:39,401
But we need to know Jewish history.
373
00:22:39,943 --> 00:22:43,905
Jewish people were not welcome
in most places on Earth,
374
00:22:44,531 --> 00:22:46,574
and especially in Palm Beach.
375
00:22:47,367 --> 00:22:48,576
For many years,
376
00:22:48,660 --> 00:22:50,370
it was impossible to buy a house,
377
00:22:50,453 --> 00:22:53,206
it was impossible
to get into any of the clubs,
378
00:22:53,289 --> 00:22:59,129
even famous hotels,
until 1960s, '65, I think.
379
00:22:59,212 --> 00:23:03,258
There was a sign there,
"No Jews, no dogs."
380
00:23:04,592 --> 00:23:07,512
[Schwartz] It wasn't a religious thing,
it was a social thing
381
00:23:07,595 --> 00:23:12,350
that the Jewish community learned
to build a wall around themselves.
382
00:23:12,434 --> 00:23:14,894
They weren't against other people,
383
00:23:14,978 --> 00:23:17,689
they just didn't trust them
that they'd be treated fairly.
384
00:23:22,068 --> 00:23:26,197
[Henriques] They trusted Bernie because
everybody they knew trusted Bernie.
385
00:23:26,281 --> 00:23:31,995
And it was inconceivable to them
that one of their own would defraud them.
386
00:23:37,333 --> 00:23:40,128
[Squillari] I remember one time
the receptionist called me up.
387
00:23:40,211 --> 00:23:43,715
She says, "You're not gonna believe this."
A couple of elderly women came in,
388
00:23:43,798 --> 00:23:46,676
and they wanted to meet Bernie,
and he came out,
389
00:23:46,759 --> 00:23:49,095
and she says,
"You'd think they met a movie star."
390
00:23:50,013 --> 00:23:52,682
Some of these elderly people
could be very sweet.
391
00:23:52,765 --> 00:23:54,767
You know, I guess he was like…
392
00:23:55,685 --> 00:23:57,395
He could be their Jewish son.
393
00:23:57,479 --> 00:23:59,981
He was taking care of them,
investing their money.
394
00:24:00,732 --> 00:24:02,025
They admired him.
395
00:24:02,901 --> 00:24:03,776
I did.
396
00:24:06,362 --> 00:24:08,823
You had people who were wealthy,
397
00:24:08,907 --> 00:24:11,534
and people who weren't
and it was their life savings,
398
00:24:11,618 --> 00:24:15,413
but it wasn't necessarily just
Jewish people, it was everybody.
399
00:24:17,749 --> 00:24:23,838
By this point, Bernie's
investment advisory business has grown,
400
00:24:23,922 --> 00:24:27,759
word-of-mouth, largely,
grown and grown and grown.
401
00:24:27,842 --> 00:24:31,888
So, Bernie is collecting names,
402
00:24:31,971 --> 00:24:34,974
moving in more significant circles.
403
00:24:35,058 --> 00:24:39,896
That allows him to really tap into
this burgeoning world of hedge funds.
404
00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:45,652
Now, the original name for hedge funds
was "hedged funds."
405
00:24:45,735 --> 00:24:47,946
And a fund that was hedged
was simply a fund
406
00:24:48,029 --> 00:24:51,032
that wasn't betting
on everything just going up.
407
00:24:51,115 --> 00:24:54,369
It had taken stakes in the market
if prices went down.
408
00:24:54,452 --> 00:24:56,913
So, you've hedged your bets.
409
00:24:57,789 --> 00:25:00,333
Hedge funds had been around
for a long time,
410
00:25:00,416 --> 00:25:03,795
but through the '80s and into the '90s,
411
00:25:03,878 --> 00:25:06,714
there's a sea change
in the world of retail investors.
412
00:25:07,340 --> 00:25:12,053
This is when Silicon Valley startups
are starting to be so attractive,
413
00:25:12,136 --> 00:25:14,847
when professional mutual fund managers
are saying,
414
00:25:14,931 --> 00:25:17,976
"You know, I can make
a lot more money running a hedge fund."
415
00:25:18,059 --> 00:25:20,979
However, as they became more popular,
416
00:25:21,062 --> 00:25:25,775
as every Tom, Dick, and Harry decided
he could be a hedge fund manager too,
417
00:25:25,858 --> 00:25:29,529
this original, classic strategy
of hedging your bets
418
00:25:29,612 --> 00:25:31,155
was thrown out the window.
419
00:25:31,239 --> 00:25:34,659
They were simply
collecting money in a pool
420
00:25:35,410 --> 00:25:38,288
and investing it
with somebody like Bernie Madoff.
421
00:25:44,627 --> 00:25:49,674
Jeffrey Tucker,
who was a former SEC regulator,
422
00:25:50,258 --> 00:25:52,010
and Walter Noel,
423
00:25:52,093 --> 00:25:57,140
a classic prep-school-bred
aristocrat on Wall Street,
424
00:25:57,223 --> 00:26:00,852
had teamed up to form
Fairfield Greenwich, a hedge fund.
425
00:26:01,519 --> 00:26:06,232
And Jeffrey Tucker's, um,
father-in-law, knew Madoff,
426
00:26:07,567 --> 00:26:09,360
and made the introduction.
427
00:26:09,444 --> 00:26:13,906
So, Walter Noel, Jeffrey Tucker,
they go to visit Bernie,
428
00:26:15,033 --> 00:26:17,660
and Bernie's right-hand man,
Frank DiPascali.
429
00:26:17,744 --> 00:26:20,371
[string music playing]
430
00:26:20,455 --> 00:26:25,918
[Henriques] Madoff explains his
split-strike conversion strategy to them.
431
00:26:26,544 --> 00:26:31,257
But in the parlance of Wall Street,
it was simply called a bull spread.
432
00:26:31,341 --> 00:26:35,386
It was a strategy that you use
to ride a bull market up,
433
00:26:35,470 --> 00:26:38,931
but to put a floor under your losses
434
00:26:39,015 --> 00:26:41,726
so that you wouldn't lose too much.
435
00:26:42,769 --> 00:26:45,772
And that's what Bernie started to market.
436
00:26:47,273 --> 00:26:49,942
Bernie deliberately made it seem complex,
437
00:26:50,026 --> 00:26:54,364
but it seemed to give them
what they wanted from Bernie:
438
00:26:55,114 --> 00:26:57,158
consistent returns.
439
00:26:59,285 --> 00:27:01,913
But what really appeals to them
440
00:27:02,789 --> 00:27:07,335
is something they'd never seen before
in the burgeoning world of hedge funds:
441
00:27:07,418 --> 00:27:10,088
the fee structure was luscious.
442
00:27:10,171 --> 00:27:12,882
The rule was 2 and 20.
443
00:27:12,965 --> 00:27:15,259
The manager, that is, Fairfield Greenwich,
444
00:27:15,343 --> 00:27:20,014
would get 2% of all the assets invested,
just right off the top.
445
00:27:20,098 --> 00:27:24,185
That's their annual fee
for managing your money.
446
00:27:24,268 --> 00:27:29,107
And then, they would get 20%
of the profits they made for you.
447
00:27:29,190 --> 00:27:32,402
In a normal world
with a normal money manager,
448
00:27:32,485 --> 00:27:37,281
Walter Noel and Jeffrey Tucker
would have to split their fee,
449
00:27:37,365 --> 00:27:41,244
the fee they collected
from their investors, with Madoff.
450
00:27:42,286 --> 00:27:44,455
But Madoff doesn't require that.
451
00:27:45,039 --> 00:27:48,501
Madoff lets them keep the entire fee
452
00:27:48,584 --> 00:27:51,170
without paying him
anything but commissions
453
00:27:51,254 --> 00:27:53,923
on the trades
he's supposedly making for them.
454
00:27:54,507 --> 00:27:58,636
To call this unusual
would be a vast understatement.
455
00:27:59,178 --> 00:28:01,013
It was unprecedented.
456
00:28:01,514 --> 00:28:04,809
It was the most attractive deal
457
00:28:04,892 --> 00:28:07,729
a hedge fund manager
could find on the planet.
458
00:28:09,564 --> 00:28:14,068
Now, to give him credit,
Jeffrey Tucker asks questions.
459
00:28:14,694 --> 00:28:16,446
He's the due diligence guy.
460
00:28:18,197 --> 00:28:24,996
But, at this point, Bernie firmly adopts
the strategy that will serve him so well.
461
00:28:26,164 --> 00:28:30,084
"If you've got all those questions,
maybe you should take your money out."
462
00:28:30,835 --> 00:28:32,837
"You know, I don't have time for this."
463
00:28:34,422 --> 00:28:38,718
And so, Fairfield Greenwich
decided to invest with Bernie Madoff.
464
00:28:39,844 --> 00:28:45,433
Fairfield Greenwich was really
Bernie's first big hedge fund client.
465
00:28:49,145 --> 00:28:53,566
I worked for Fairfield Greenwich Group
founder Walter Noel
466
00:28:53,649 --> 00:28:56,277
from 1987 to 1998.
467
00:28:57,904 --> 00:29:02,533
I think that Walter Noel
and his family were very pretentious.
468
00:29:03,034 --> 00:29:04,911
When Walter first started out,
469
00:29:04,994 --> 00:29:09,457
he tried to pretend that he was rich
because they wanted to be in high society.
470
00:29:09,540 --> 00:29:13,336
[refined choral music playing]
471
00:29:13,419 --> 00:29:16,339
[Sherry] I heard that he would
refinance his mortgage constantly.
472
00:29:17,215 --> 00:29:22,220
He would rent out his house to help defray
the expenses of a vacation in Europe.
473
00:29:22,303 --> 00:29:24,806
He did his own lawn for a while.
474
00:29:26,098 --> 00:29:30,228
And his mother-in-law was giving his wife
some money to help her each month.
475
00:29:31,395 --> 00:29:34,148
But Walter was very good
at selling himself.
476
00:29:34,732 --> 00:29:36,984
He lived an aspirational lifestyle.
477
00:29:37,819 --> 00:29:41,989
So, he made sure that he was at
the right clubs and he was very gregarious
478
00:29:42,073 --> 00:29:44,742
and was very much
into networking with people.
479
00:29:45,243 --> 00:29:49,664
I thought, "Well, okay, that's kind of
harmless, because so what?" [chuckles]
480
00:29:50,456 --> 00:29:53,000
Then Bernie Madoff came on the scene,
481
00:29:53,084 --> 00:29:56,087
and that's when things just exploded.
482
00:29:56,170 --> 00:29:58,673
It was like finding
the goose that laid the golden egg.
483
00:30:00,091 --> 00:30:05,304
The money started to really roll in
very quickly, and a lot of it.
484
00:30:05,388 --> 00:30:09,016
And he stopped mowing his own lawn.
He stopped renting his house out.
485
00:30:11,310 --> 00:30:12,895
[phone ringing]
486
00:30:12,979 --> 00:30:18,109
[Henriques] Bernie experienced
this avalanche of cash flowing in
487
00:30:18,192 --> 00:30:19,777
from the hedge fund world.
488
00:30:20,486 --> 00:30:23,531
Part of that was just
the curious and glamorous structure
489
00:30:23,614 --> 00:30:25,074
of the Walter Noel family.
490
00:30:26,158 --> 00:30:28,494
He had five gorgeous daughters.
491
00:30:29,078 --> 00:30:32,498
Each of them seemed to marry
into the moneyed aristocracy
492
00:30:32,582 --> 00:30:34,750
of a different part of the globe.
493
00:30:35,585 --> 00:30:38,754
One married a Latin American heir,
494
00:30:38,838 --> 00:30:41,465
another married a Swiss investor
495
00:30:41,549 --> 00:30:44,302
who had great ties in Latin America
and the Middle East.
496
00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:50,308
So, with Fairfield Greenwich
and all of these sons-in-law,
497
00:30:50,391 --> 00:30:53,686
Bernie had, like,
instant global credibility
498
00:30:53,769 --> 00:30:57,607
and access to global cash.
499
00:30:59,817 --> 00:31:02,403
[Sherry] It took me
a long time to understand
500
00:31:02,486 --> 00:31:05,615
what was so special
about Bernie Madoff's trades.
501
00:31:07,617 --> 00:31:12,872
And then one of Walter's clients wanted
to see what stocks were in that portfolio.
502
00:31:12,955 --> 00:31:15,374
So, he hands me seven pages
503
00:31:15,458 --> 00:31:18,419
that were printed on a dot matrix printer,
504
00:31:19,253 --> 00:31:23,007
on thin paper
and in very poor quality ink.
505
00:31:23,090 --> 00:31:26,135
And I thought to myself,
"What a schlock operation."
506
00:31:26,218 --> 00:31:29,055
I mean, it looked like
he was working out of his basement
507
00:31:29,138 --> 00:31:31,515
with cinder block walls. [chuckles]
508
00:31:31,599 --> 00:31:33,601
This was not the way a statement looks,
509
00:31:33,684 --> 00:31:36,228
because every statement from a bank,
510
00:31:36,312 --> 00:31:38,981
from a brokerage house,
from a credit union,
511
00:31:39,065 --> 00:31:42,944
is on premium paper,
and it's got a nice, big, color logo,
512
00:31:43,027 --> 00:31:46,530
and it's got a lot of fine print,
and it's got a phone number where to call
513
00:31:46,614 --> 00:31:49,450
if there's a problem
or if you have a question.
514
00:31:49,533 --> 00:31:51,535
Bernie Madoff statements had none of that.
515
00:31:55,039 --> 00:31:57,375
[Dubinsky] Hedge funds are important
to Madoff's Ponzi scheme
516
00:31:57,458 --> 00:31:59,669
because it was a way to funnel money in.
517
00:31:59,752 --> 00:32:02,797
So, the hedge funds
were basically feeder funds,
518
00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:05,424
collecting money from other investors,
519
00:32:05,508 --> 00:32:09,512
and then they would put that money in,
on behalf of those investors, into Madoff.
520
00:32:10,262 --> 00:32:14,517
And so the question then is how many
of these feeder funds were complicit,
521
00:32:14,600 --> 00:32:16,477
or whether they turned a blind eye
522
00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:18,688
and just stuck their head
in the sand and said,
523
00:32:18,771 --> 00:32:22,400
"Look, as long as I'm getting the returns,
I'm not gonna ask any more questions."
524
00:32:22,483 --> 00:32:25,903
But you certainly have to question,
you know,
525
00:32:25,987 --> 00:32:30,032
what was going
through their mind at that point, uh,
526
00:32:30,116 --> 00:32:32,118
when they invested with Bernie Madoff.
527
00:32:35,246 --> 00:32:39,750
So, Mr. Madoff promised
some of the larger individual clients
528
00:32:39,834 --> 00:32:41,460
a higher rate of return.
529
00:32:41,544 --> 00:32:44,588
Those were kind of the big four,
so to speak.
530
00:32:45,297 --> 00:32:50,011
[deposition lawyer] You had agreements
with Norman Levy, Carl Shapiro…
531
00:32:50,094 --> 00:32:50,928
[Madoff] Right.
532
00:32:51,595 --> 00:32:53,931
[deposition lawyer] With Jeffry Picower?
-[Madoff] Yes.
533
00:32:54,015 --> 00:32:55,891
-[lawyer] And Stanley Chais?
-[Madoff] Right.
534
00:32:55,975 --> 00:33:00,104
I had a very special relationship
with the big four clients, all right?
535
00:33:00,187 --> 00:33:02,273
Picower was a little bit different.
536
00:33:03,065 --> 00:33:08,821
[Henriques] I asked Madoff whether
he thought anybody among his big investors
537
00:33:08,904 --> 00:33:10,573
knew what he was doing.
538
00:33:10,656 --> 00:33:15,244
And the one name
he came up with was Picower.
539
00:33:15,327 --> 00:33:17,538
He said, "I think he knew."
540
00:33:17,621 --> 00:33:20,916
"We never discussed it.
Never confronted one another."
541
00:33:23,419 --> 00:33:27,048
[Dubinsky] Jeffry Picower was
a longtime client of Mr. Madoff's,
542
00:33:27,798 --> 00:33:29,967
dating back over 30 years.
543
00:33:30,051 --> 00:33:32,303
He was a lawyer, he was an accountant,
544
00:33:32,386 --> 00:33:35,056
who started his career
selling tax shelters.
545
00:33:35,639 --> 00:33:38,142
[Henriques]
Picower is kind of this shadowy figure.
546
00:33:38,684 --> 00:33:43,230
He invested north of $600 million
in his Madoff account,
547
00:33:43,856 --> 00:33:50,696
and then between 1998 and 2003,
Picower begins drawing money out.
548
00:33:51,989 --> 00:33:57,828
And the amount of money that he was
taking out was really quite staggering.
549
00:33:57,912 --> 00:34:00,664
Hundreds of millions of dollars at a time.
550
00:34:00,748 --> 00:34:03,501
A billion dollars in one particular year.
551
00:34:04,585 --> 00:34:08,297
It had to have been
very difficult for Bernie to deal with.
552
00:34:08,380 --> 00:34:12,426
He had to raise the money
to cover Picower's withdrawals. In fact,
553
00:34:12,510 --> 00:34:17,348
at one point, virtually all the money
that Fairfield Greenwich, the feeder fund,
554
00:34:17,431 --> 00:34:19,100
was steering into Bernie's hands,
555
00:34:19,183 --> 00:34:22,770
Bernie was turning around
and paying out to Jeffry Picower.
556
00:34:24,313 --> 00:34:27,483
[Campbell] If you look at
the entire length of their relationship,
557
00:34:27,566 --> 00:34:33,364
Picower took out $7 billion from
Bernie's investment advisory business.
558
00:34:33,906 --> 00:34:36,951
And yet Bernie becomes
totally dependent on Picower,
559
00:34:37,034 --> 00:34:40,996
because while Picower was extracting
billions of dollars,
560
00:34:41,080 --> 00:34:45,084
he also puts money in, even if
it's just for a brief period of time,
561
00:34:45,167 --> 00:34:49,171
when the Ponzi's threatened
by periodic cash crunches,
562
00:34:49,255 --> 00:34:52,049
bailing Madoff out
when he needed to be bailed out.
563
00:34:52,883 --> 00:34:56,804
And as a result, Picower comes to have
the power to extort Bernie.
564
00:34:58,305 --> 00:35:00,724
He's both Bernie's savior, if you will,
565
00:35:00,808 --> 00:35:03,978
and Bernie's deep, enraging enemy,
566
00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:07,148
because Bernie,
as the ultimate control freak,
567
00:35:07,231 --> 00:35:10,109
has allowed somebody
to basically control him.
568
00:35:11,193 --> 00:35:16,323
For instance, while Picower was taking
real gains in cash out of the business,
569
00:35:17,116 --> 00:35:20,494
he would call in fake losses
to Annette Bongiorno,
570
00:35:21,245 --> 00:35:23,497
and literally would say, "I need losses."
571
00:35:23,581 --> 00:35:26,208
"It's the end of the year.
I don't want to report gains,"
572
00:35:26,792 --> 00:35:29,628
and then have fictitious losses made
573
00:35:29,712 --> 00:35:33,382
so he didn't have to pay taxes
on that money that he was taking out.
574
00:35:35,384 --> 00:35:36,427
I asked Bernie,
575
00:35:36,510 --> 00:35:40,431
"Why would you let yourself
be at the mercy of this guy?"
576
00:35:41,515 --> 00:35:44,935
He basically said,
"Jim, you've heard the expression,
577
00:35:45,019 --> 00:35:48,022
'keep your friends close
and your enemies closer.'"
578
00:35:50,316 --> 00:35:52,693
[Henriques] Bernie's own suspicion was
579
00:35:52,776 --> 00:35:55,779
that Jeffry Picower
had twigged to what he was doing,
580
00:35:55,863 --> 00:35:59,200
understood that Bernie
couldn't say no to him,
581
00:35:59,283 --> 00:36:03,287
and was going to milk his Madoff account
for everything he could.
582
00:36:03,370 --> 00:36:06,665
And indeed, no one made more money,
583
00:36:06,749 --> 00:36:10,461
no one got richer
from the Madoff Ponzi scheme,
584
00:36:10,544 --> 00:36:13,130
than Jeffry Picower did, not even Madoff.
585
00:36:15,674 --> 00:36:20,888
[Madoff] I admitted to doing enough things
that were totally embarrassing and wrong
586
00:36:20,971 --> 00:36:22,306
that I regret,
587
00:36:22,389 --> 00:36:24,808
but this was my own doing.
588
00:36:25,517 --> 00:36:27,269
No one had a gun to my head.
589
00:36:28,187 --> 00:36:31,190
You had to understand, unless you knew me
590
00:36:31,273 --> 00:36:33,901
and you know my relationship
with these people,
591
00:36:33,984 --> 00:36:37,947
my four big clients,
being the greedy people that they were,
592
00:36:38,030 --> 00:36:40,032
never wanted to close out the transaction.
593
00:36:40,115 --> 00:36:44,870
[atmospheric music playing]
594
00:36:46,247 --> 00:36:47,665
[Erin Arvedlund] I'm a reporter.
595
00:36:47,748 --> 00:36:50,918
Been covering business since the 1990s,
596
00:36:51,001 --> 00:36:55,714
and I came to work at
Barron's Magazine in 2000,
597
00:36:55,798 --> 00:36:59,385
and I wanted to start writing
more about hedge funds,
598
00:36:59,468 --> 00:37:03,764
which were not as big of a deal
as they are today.
599
00:37:04,807 --> 00:37:10,020
And one day, I got a phone call from a guy
who was a very good source of mine.
600
00:37:10,104 --> 00:37:12,856
He said, "You should write
about Bernie Madoff's hedge fund."
601
00:37:12,940 --> 00:37:14,275
"It never loses money."
602
00:37:14,984 --> 00:37:17,861
And that made me prick up my ears,
603
00:37:17,945 --> 00:37:21,156
because never in history
had there been a hedge fund
604
00:37:21,240 --> 00:37:23,701
-that never lost money on Wall Street.
-[bell ringing]
605
00:37:23,784 --> 00:37:25,035
[newscaster] Online companies
606
00:37:25,119 --> 00:37:27,663
were among the biggest losers
on Wall Street this past week.
607
00:37:27,746 --> 00:37:30,165
And the carnage is just beginning.
608
00:37:30,249 --> 00:37:35,170
[reporter] Former high-flyers that
once fetched $30, $40, $50 a share
609
00:37:35,254 --> 00:37:36,964
can now be had for a few bucks.
610
00:37:37,798 --> 00:37:39,633
[Arvedlund] In the early 2000s,
611
00:37:39,717 --> 00:37:43,470
the dot-com bubble had just burst.
612
00:37:43,554 --> 00:37:46,724
So, the stock market was cratering.
613
00:37:47,266 --> 00:37:48,892
At the same time,
614
00:37:49,435 --> 00:37:53,856
Bernie Madoff's hedge fund
was apparently consistently making money,
615
00:37:55,024 --> 00:37:56,650
which was also strange.
616
00:37:56,734 --> 00:38:01,613
Why would his particular hedge fund
be the only one that was making money?
617
00:38:01,697 --> 00:38:05,659
So, I wanted to find out more
about Madoff's hedge fund.
618
00:38:07,411 --> 00:38:09,246
As part of my research,
619
00:38:09,330 --> 00:38:14,084
we found an offering document
for Fairfield Greenwich.
620
00:38:14,168 --> 00:38:16,211
An offering document is really just
621
00:38:16,295 --> 00:38:18,922
a prospectus or an investment pitch
622
00:38:19,006 --> 00:38:22,009
that a fund gives to potential clients
623
00:38:22,885 --> 00:38:25,012
that explains a trading strategy.
624
00:38:25,888 --> 00:38:29,266
So, in the spring of 2001,
625
00:38:29,350 --> 00:38:32,519
at that time you could actually
go to the Exchange
626
00:38:32,603 --> 00:38:34,688
and go down onto the trading floor,
627
00:38:34,772 --> 00:38:38,525
and I would interview traders and say,
"Have you heard of this guy?"
628
00:38:38,609 --> 00:38:41,570
"Has anyone done business
with this billion-dollar hedge fund
629
00:38:41,653 --> 00:38:43,030
run by Bernie Madoff?"
630
00:38:43,113 --> 00:38:48,285
And the strange part was that
nobody had done any trading with them.
631
00:38:49,078 --> 00:38:53,123
And I started asking private banks,
632
00:38:53,832 --> 00:38:57,795
"Hey, do you have any wealthy people
who invest in this hedge fund?"
633
00:38:57,878 --> 00:38:59,505
And over the course of it,
634
00:39:00,047 --> 00:39:02,758
I started noticing
some very strange things.
635
00:39:02,841 --> 00:39:09,807
So, for instance, when I interviewed
some clients of a private bank, they said,
636
00:39:10,349 --> 00:39:13,602
"You know, we have been told
we can invest in Bernie's hedge fund,
637
00:39:13,685 --> 00:39:15,896
but we can't tell anyone
he's our money manager."
638
00:39:15,979 --> 00:39:19,858
It's a red flag
when your money manager tells you,
639
00:39:19,942 --> 00:39:22,778
"Don't tell anyone
I'm running your money," because
640
00:39:22,861 --> 00:39:26,073
most portfolio managers
want to crow about their returns.
641
00:39:27,741 --> 00:39:32,788
I went to lunch with somebody
who worked at Merrill Lynch,
642
00:39:33,288 --> 00:39:38,836
and he was kind of a banker
to the wealthy, and he said,
643
00:39:38,919 --> 00:39:42,297
"I can't look at the books,
I can't do any due diligence."
644
00:39:42,798 --> 00:39:46,009
"However, if I tell my clients
645
00:39:46,093 --> 00:39:49,930
that I want to pull them out
of Madoff's fund,
646
00:39:50,013 --> 00:39:51,098
they're gonna fire me."
647
00:39:51,181 --> 00:39:54,268
This scenario was repeated
over and over and over.
648
00:39:55,727 --> 00:40:00,149
As part of my reporting,
I also called Fairfield Greenwich,
649
00:40:00,232 --> 00:40:02,151
and I spoke with Jeffrey Tucker.
650
00:40:02,860 --> 00:40:05,821
And he dismissed me and said,
651
00:40:05,904 --> 00:40:07,948
"There's no reason
why you should be writing a story."
652
00:40:08,031 --> 00:40:09,283
"This is a private fund."
653
00:40:09,366 --> 00:40:13,120
"It's not open to retail
or mom-and-pop investors."
654
00:40:13,203 --> 00:40:17,291
And Barron's is very much
a magazine read by the public.
655
00:40:18,292 --> 00:40:22,504
But some investors avoided Madoff.
656
00:40:22,588 --> 00:40:24,298
For instance, Goldman Sachs,
657
00:40:24,381 --> 00:40:26,091
Salomon Brothers.
658
00:40:26,175 --> 00:40:28,677
They refused to do business with Madoff.
659
00:40:28,760 --> 00:40:32,347
They said, "We can't figure this out.
There's something weird about this."
660
00:40:33,515 --> 00:40:39,021
So my expectation was that it would be
easy to get an interview with Bernie
661
00:40:39,104 --> 00:40:43,192
because most money managers
wanted to be interviewed.
662
00:40:43,275 --> 00:40:46,445
It was considered, you know,
kind of a career win
663
00:40:46,528 --> 00:40:49,239
if you were profiled in Barron's Magazine.
664
00:40:51,950 --> 00:40:53,327
[line calling]
665
00:40:53,410 --> 00:40:56,121
But I-- I could not get through to him.
666
00:40:56,205 --> 00:40:59,208
[unsettling music playing]
667
00:41:02,294 --> 00:41:05,422
[Arvedlund] I tried the back door,
I tried the front door, uh…
668
00:41:05,506 --> 00:41:08,842
I just could not get the guy
to give me an interview.
669
00:41:10,886 --> 00:41:13,305
It was a couple days before publication…
670
00:41:13,388 --> 00:41:15,599
[phone ringing]
671
00:41:16,308 --> 00:41:17,976
…and I left a message and said,
672
00:41:18,060 --> 00:41:20,979
"We're going to write this story
whether you talk to me or not."
673
00:41:21,063 --> 00:41:23,649
[inaudible]
674
00:41:28,529 --> 00:41:29,446
[Arvedlund] And,
675
00:41:30,197 --> 00:41:31,865
bang, he was on the phone.
676
00:41:35,452 --> 00:41:40,165
As I remember it,
Bernie Madoff was very smooth.
677
00:41:40,749 --> 00:41:45,754
Seemed surprised that I would be
interested in writing about his fund.
678
00:41:46,880 --> 00:41:50,050
He pretty much gave me
the brush-off and said,
679
00:41:50,133 --> 00:41:53,637
"I can't tell you about my strategy,
it's proprietary."
680
00:41:53,720 --> 00:41:57,349
And kind of patted me on the head
and sent me on my way.
681
00:41:58,058 --> 00:42:02,479
And, because I had,
really, no answer from him,
682
00:42:02,563 --> 00:42:05,274
so all we could really do
was raise questions.
683
00:42:05,774 --> 00:42:07,025
How did he do it?
684
00:42:07,109 --> 00:42:08,819
How did he make money?
685
00:42:08,902 --> 00:42:10,821
You know, what was the strategy?
686
00:42:11,655 --> 00:42:16,660
Why does he tell people
not to tell anyone he has a hedge fund?
687
00:42:17,411 --> 00:42:20,289
Why does he give up
all this money in fees?
688
00:42:21,790 --> 00:42:25,669
I knew in my gut
that there was something not right,
689
00:42:26,962 --> 00:42:29,339
but that was all I had at that point.
690
00:42:44,813 --> 00:42:48,900
After the article came out,
it was May of 2001,
691
00:42:48,984 --> 00:42:50,152
I thought,
692
00:42:50,235 --> 00:42:52,195
you know, "Yes! I've won the Pulitzer."
693
00:42:52,279 --> 00:42:55,282
Um, but I didn't get a single phone call.
694
00:42:55,365 --> 00:42:58,410
I thought maybe I'd get
an angry, you know, response
695
00:42:58,493 --> 00:43:00,704
from Bernie or his lawyers,
696
00:43:01,705 --> 00:43:03,332
but it was total silence.
697
00:43:05,792 --> 00:43:07,628
What I didn't know was that
698
00:43:07,711 --> 00:43:10,213
Bernie went on to his trading floor
699
00:43:10,297 --> 00:43:12,883
with a copy of my story and said,
700
00:43:12,966 --> 00:43:14,801
"This woman's an idiot."
701
00:43:14,885 --> 00:43:18,639
"I don't want to hear anything about it.
It's total baloney, let's move on."
702
00:43:20,932 --> 00:43:22,559
[Squillari] I said to Bernie,
703
00:43:22,643 --> 00:43:26,021
"But it's in the paper.
People are going to mention it."
704
00:43:26,104 --> 00:43:28,649
He goes, "We're not discussing this."
705
00:43:29,232 --> 00:43:34,029
Bernie never liked to be associated
with any bad publicity.
706
00:43:34,112 --> 00:43:40,911
Any time a reporter called
or a piece was written about Bernie,
707
00:43:40,994 --> 00:43:42,579
he'd get very uptight.
708
00:43:47,042 --> 00:43:48,460
That's just the way he was.
709
00:43:48,543 --> 00:43:51,171
In his mind, if we don't discuss it,
710
00:43:52,381 --> 00:43:54,341
it's okay. It's not real.
711
00:43:54,424 --> 00:43:56,843
That's it. No mention of it.
712
00:44:01,890 --> 00:44:04,101
[Henriques] Up until the spring of 2001,
713
00:44:04,184 --> 00:44:09,189
Bernie Madoff had managed to keep
his entire investment advisory business
714
00:44:09,272 --> 00:44:12,567
almost completely off the public radar.
715
00:44:12,651 --> 00:44:18,073
He was keeping everything very quiet,
very shadowy, very hidden
716
00:44:18,865 --> 00:44:24,162
until the more formidable pages
of Barron's Magazine comes out.
717
00:44:24,246 --> 00:44:26,248
Now, it's important to note
718
00:44:26,331 --> 00:44:31,253
that the story did not accuse
Bernie Madoff of doing anything illegal,
719
00:44:31,336 --> 00:44:35,549
but it did produce questions
among their investors.
720
00:44:38,260 --> 00:44:40,429
[Arvedlund] After my article came out,
721
00:44:40,512 --> 00:44:45,600
it really spooked Jeffrey Tucker
from Fairfield Greenwich.
722
00:44:46,184 --> 00:44:47,728
He started to have doubts.
723
00:44:48,228 --> 00:44:50,230
So he demanded a meeting.
724
00:44:50,731 --> 00:44:54,985
This is a precarious moment
for both Jeffrey Tucker and Bernie Madoff,
725
00:44:55,068 --> 00:44:57,863
because they have
such a symbiotic relationship.
726
00:44:58,572 --> 00:45:01,950
Tucker and Fairfield Greenwich
have invested billions of dollars,
727
00:45:02,033 --> 00:45:06,371
and Bernie is supposedly investing
these billions of dollars.
728
00:45:07,414 --> 00:45:10,333
[Henriques]
The meeting was an awkward encounter.
729
00:45:10,417 --> 00:45:13,962
"Bernie, I need to talk with you
about what's been reported."
730
00:45:14,796 --> 00:45:17,924
It was imperative that he reassure Tucker,
731
00:45:18,884 --> 00:45:21,928
but it's classic Madoff
732
00:45:22,012 --> 00:45:25,056
that he reassured him by appearing
not in the least bit worried.
733
00:45:26,224 --> 00:45:30,937
And Bernie has his right-hand man,
Frank DiPascali, there with him,
734
00:45:31,021 --> 00:45:34,191
and they show him a paper trade ledger,
735
00:45:34,274 --> 00:45:38,236
showing the different trades that
have been made in their account over time.
736
00:45:38,862 --> 00:45:42,240
Well, Jeffrey Tucker,
this was not his first rodeo.
737
00:45:42,324 --> 00:45:45,494
He was a former regulator,
he was a lawyer.
738
00:45:45,577 --> 00:45:50,832
Anybody can print out a stack of paper
that says certain trades have been made.
739
00:45:50,916 --> 00:45:51,833
He needs more.
740
00:45:53,043 --> 00:45:58,381
[Arvedlund] At which point,
Bernie and Frank fire up the computer
741
00:45:58,465 --> 00:46:03,678
and they show him that they have
an account with a regulator called DTC,
742
00:46:03,762 --> 00:46:06,014
which is the Depository Trust Company.
743
00:46:06,097 --> 00:46:10,560
This is essentially a bank account
for every broker on Wall Street.
744
00:46:10,644 --> 00:46:14,731
They say, "If you really, you know,
are worried about where your money is,
745
00:46:14,815 --> 00:46:18,485
just know that we have this account
and you can check your portfolio anytime."
746
00:46:19,361 --> 00:46:22,447
[Henriques] "So," Bernie says,
"Pick a stock,
747
00:46:22,531 --> 00:46:24,074
pick any one of these trades."
748
00:46:24,157 --> 00:46:26,535
"Which one would you like to check on?"
749
00:46:27,035 --> 00:46:30,622
"Well, check on our trades in AOL."
"Sure."
750
00:46:31,331 --> 00:46:33,834
Frank punches a few keys,
751
00:46:33,917 --> 00:46:39,422
up pops what looks like a page of
Fairfield Greenwich's transactions in AOL.
752
00:46:40,674 --> 00:46:45,637
Showing exactly the number of shares
Jeffrey Tucker expected to find there.
753
00:46:46,680 --> 00:46:51,142
[sighs] I mean, you could have heard
the sigh of relief around the world.
754
00:46:51,226 --> 00:46:52,477
It's all there.
755
00:46:52,561 --> 00:46:54,729
Nothing to worry about.
756
00:46:56,565 --> 00:47:01,069
And he goes away
really placated and reassured.
757
00:47:02,571 --> 00:47:04,322
Now in reality, of course,
758
00:47:05,532 --> 00:47:06,533
this was all a sham.
759
00:47:07,868 --> 00:47:12,038
This was a Potemkin village
of a DTC account.
760
00:47:12,706 --> 00:47:14,749
Now, what had actually happened is,
761
00:47:14,833 --> 00:47:19,921
Frank DiPascali had hijacked
the legitimate clearing house feed
762
00:47:20,005 --> 00:47:23,925
from the legitimate firm upstairs
763
00:47:24,009 --> 00:47:28,763
and had woven fake trades into it
764
00:47:28,847 --> 00:47:33,143
so that he could summon it up,
show it to Jeffrey Tucker,
765
00:47:33,226 --> 00:47:37,856
and reassure him that, in fact,
his AOL stock was safe and sound.
766
00:47:38,523 --> 00:47:42,277
So he had created a perfect replica.
767
00:47:43,320 --> 00:47:48,033
Madoff and DiPascali really had
a remarkable relationship,
768
00:47:48,116 --> 00:47:49,034
in that,
769
00:47:49,826 --> 00:47:53,955
DiPascali was able… to intuit
770
00:47:54,539 --> 00:47:57,500
what Madoff would need
771
00:47:57,584 --> 00:48:02,547
and what Madoff could best use
to cover up his fraud.
772
00:48:02,631 --> 00:48:04,549
[compelling music playing]
773
00:48:04,633 --> 00:48:08,053
[Henriques] There was one amazing episode
774
00:48:08,136 --> 00:48:12,891
where an accountant for a fund
asks DiPascali
775
00:48:12,974 --> 00:48:16,478
to see the trade ledger for a random date,
776
00:48:16,561 --> 00:48:19,481
and DiPascali says, "Oh sure, sure,"
777
00:48:19,981 --> 00:48:22,067
and says, "We need a trade ledger."
778
00:48:23,234 --> 00:48:27,197
Well, his minions there
frantically go into action.
779
00:48:27,280 --> 00:48:31,034
They create a fake trade ledger.
780
00:48:31,117 --> 00:48:34,496
It prints off the printer,
this huge stack of paper,
781
00:48:34,579 --> 00:48:38,208
but, oh wait,
it's too pristine, it's too clean.
782
00:48:38,291 --> 00:48:43,171
They toss that wad of paper
around the office like a beach ball
783
00:48:43,254 --> 00:48:47,926
until it looks sufficiently ragged
and thumbed and well-used.
784
00:48:48,009 --> 00:48:50,720
But, oh wait, it's hot off the printer.
785
00:48:51,262 --> 00:48:52,639
That's a problem.
786
00:48:52,722 --> 00:48:55,725
So they chill it
in the office refrigerator.
787
00:48:56,977 --> 00:49:01,898
And, of course it's completely convincing
to the accountant.
788
00:49:01,982 --> 00:49:05,360
So, this kind of stagecraft,
you can't call it anything else,
789
00:49:05,443 --> 00:49:08,613
just seemed to fit
like a hand into a glove
790
00:49:09,114 --> 00:49:14,119
uh, for what Madoff needed
to reassure his investors.
791
00:49:14,202 --> 00:49:17,205
Even before Madoff himself
knew what he needed.
792
00:49:19,499 --> 00:49:21,209
[deposition lawyer]
"I am standing here today
793
00:49:21,292 --> 00:49:24,129
to say, that from the early 1990s
794
00:49:24,212 --> 00:49:26,423
until December of 2008,
795
00:49:27,215 --> 00:49:30,427
I helped Bernie Madoff and other people
796
00:49:30,510 --> 00:49:33,179
carry out the fraud
that hurt thousands of people."
797
00:49:33,930 --> 00:49:37,600
"There was one simple fact
that Bernie Madoff knew,
798
00:49:37,684 --> 00:49:40,520
that I knew, and that other people knew,
799
00:49:40,603 --> 00:49:42,772
but that we never told the clients,
800
00:49:42,856 --> 00:49:46,109
nor did we tell the regulators
like the SEC."
801
00:49:46,192 --> 00:49:52,407
"No purchases or sales of securities were
actually taking place in their accounts."
802
00:49:52,490 --> 00:49:55,326
"It was all fake. It was all fictitious."
803
00:49:55,410 --> 00:49:58,663
"It was wrong,
and I knew it was wrong at the time."
804
00:49:58,747 --> 00:50:01,708
[dramatic music playing]
805
00:50:02,751 --> 00:50:04,377
[printer whirring]
806
00:50:08,339 --> 00:50:10,550
[Dubinsky] This fraud went on for decades.
807
00:50:12,260 --> 00:50:14,137
But without the proper paperwork,
808
00:50:14,220 --> 00:50:16,931
the whole thing would have
been exposed very quickly.
809
00:50:17,724 --> 00:50:19,309
Account statements,
810
00:50:20,477 --> 00:50:22,187
trade confirmations,
811
00:50:23,104 --> 00:50:25,732
reports for clients when
they wanted a report…
812
00:50:25,815 --> 00:50:28,818
The only way that could be done
is through the use of the computer.
813
00:50:30,737 --> 00:50:35,200
And you can't go out
and buy software for fictitious trades.
814
00:50:35,283 --> 00:50:38,453
You need to create your own software
to make that happen.
815
00:50:40,413 --> 00:50:45,460
So, computer programmers George Perez
and Jerry O'Hara were critical
816
00:50:45,543 --> 00:50:48,588
in helping Madoff
continue the fraud for so long.
817
00:50:48,671 --> 00:50:51,508
[tense music playing]
818
00:50:52,717 --> 00:50:56,054
Jerry and George didn't lead
the same lifestyles
819
00:50:56,137 --> 00:50:58,556
as the 17th floor staff.
820
00:50:59,724 --> 00:51:01,768
Frank had a two-million-dollar boat.
821
00:51:02,477 --> 00:51:05,730
Jodi had this house on the Jersey Shore.
822
00:51:06,606 --> 00:51:10,485
They didn't have that.
They kind of lived pretty modestly.
823
00:51:11,236 --> 00:51:13,613
But they knew
what they were doing was wrong.
824
00:51:14,322 --> 00:51:17,492
[Campbell] They know
that they're falsifying reports,
825
00:51:17,575 --> 00:51:20,161
and over time,
they become uncomfortable with that.
826
00:51:22,747 --> 00:51:26,626
George and Jerry were getting a little
nervous that they were gonna be discovered
827
00:51:26,709 --> 00:51:28,753
because they're at risk here.
828
00:51:32,257 --> 00:51:34,884
[Campbell] They start
to confront Frank DiPascali,
829
00:51:35,468 --> 00:51:39,430
and it turns into
almost a comical blackmail,
830
00:51:39,514 --> 00:51:42,600
because they start saying
they need more pay to do this.
831
00:51:43,476 --> 00:51:47,272
And they don't want it to look
like there's a sudden bump in pay,
832
00:51:47,355 --> 00:51:49,566
so they ask to be paid in diamonds.
833
00:51:51,526 --> 00:51:54,404
Of which Frank is thinking,
"That's fucking nuts."
834
00:51:55,655 --> 00:51:57,824
And they actually
put together a note saying,
835
00:51:57,907 --> 00:52:00,326
"We're very concerned
with reports we're running,
836
00:52:00,410 --> 00:52:03,496
and we don't know
if our lives may be in jeopardy,"
837
00:52:04,372 --> 00:52:06,583
and they want to get this on the record.
838
00:52:09,460 --> 00:52:13,840
It says, "I've expressed to my boss,
Frank DiPascali,
839
00:52:13,923 --> 00:52:18,219
my unwillingness to work on projects
which I am uncomfortable with."
840
00:52:18,761 --> 00:52:23,391
"I don't know how far up the ladder
my unwillingness has been communicated,
841
00:52:23,933 --> 00:52:28,062
but it is a matter of short time
before it hits the top."
842
00:52:28,146 --> 00:52:31,274
"I fear for my job, my family, my future."
843
00:52:31,774 --> 00:52:33,776
And it's signed George Perez.
844
00:52:37,822 --> 00:52:39,240
[tense music playing]
845
00:52:39,324 --> 00:52:42,118
[Garfinkel]
Then they confronted Bernie about it.
846
00:52:43,369 --> 00:52:47,123
And Bernie, he didn't, like,
bend over backwards and say,
847
00:52:47,207 --> 00:52:49,459
"Oh yeah, you know,
okay, yeah, you got me, guys."
848
00:52:49,542 --> 00:52:52,587
"Take whatever you want."
He was gonna play hardball with them.
849
00:52:54,839 --> 00:52:57,717
[Campbell] They go
into Madoff's office with Frank,
850
00:52:58,384 --> 00:53:01,596
and they basically say
they're not comfortable.
851
00:53:01,679 --> 00:53:04,224
"And furthermore,
we think you should shut down
852
00:53:04,307 --> 00:53:06,726
the investment advisory business."
853
00:53:06,809 --> 00:53:10,647
Which, of course,
drives Bernie into pure bully mode.
854
00:53:10,730 --> 00:53:14,525
[tense music continues]
855
00:53:14,609 --> 00:53:16,069
[Campbell] He browbeat them.
856
00:53:17,820 --> 00:53:20,949
It's a precarious situation
for both sides because
857
00:53:21,032 --> 00:53:24,244
these boys don't deal with Bernie
directly day-to-day.
858
00:53:24,327 --> 00:53:26,579
And furthermore,
they've just threatened this guy
859
00:53:26,663 --> 00:53:30,375
who is the man that runs the firm
and is a legend on Wall Street.
860
00:53:30,458 --> 00:53:32,877
Get the fuck out of my office. Now!
861
00:53:34,879 --> 00:53:39,300
[Garfinkel] And eventually
Madoff negotiated this through Frank,
862
00:53:39,384 --> 00:53:42,303
and, you know,
Frank got them some more money.
863
00:53:43,513 --> 00:53:46,975
They ended up with an additional $60,000,
864
00:53:47,058 --> 00:53:50,937
which, in the scope
of this whole case, really isn't a lot.
865
00:53:52,981 --> 00:53:56,276
[Dubinsky] They actually could have
extorted Bernie for any amount of money,
866
00:53:56,359 --> 00:53:58,778
most likely, and kept their jobs.
867
00:54:00,154 --> 00:54:04,993
The boys settle
for this rather average increase,
868
00:54:05,952 --> 00:54:09,247
and Bernie sort of has
yet another narrow escape.
869
00:54:10,081 --> 00:54:11,207
For the time being.
870
00:54:16,254 --> 00:54:19,299
[closing theme music playing]