From Prison, Madoff Says Banks ‘Had to Know’ of Fraud

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

BUTNER, N.C. — Bernard L. Madoff said he never thought the collapse of his Ponzi scheme would cause the sort of destruction that has befallen his family.

In his first interview for publication since his arrest in December 2008, Mr. Madoff — looking noticeably thinner and rumpled in khaki prison garb — maintained that family members knew nothing about his crimes.

But during a private two-hour interview in a visitor room here on Tuesday, and in earlier e-mail exchanges, he asserted that unidentified banks and hedge funds were somehow “complicit” in his elaborate fraud, an about-face from earlier claims that he was the only person involved in the fraud.

Mr. Madoff, who is serving a 150-year sentence, seemed frail and a bit agitated compared with the stoic calm he maintained before his incarceration in 2009, perhaps burdened by sadness over the suicide of his son Mark in December. In many ways, however, he is unchanged. He spoke with great intensity and fluency about his dealings with various banks and hedge funds. In asserting the complicity of others, Mr. Madoff in the interview pointed to the “willful blindness” of many banks and hedge funds who dealt with his investment advisory business and their failure to examine discrepancies between his regulatory filings and other information available to them.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/business/madoff-prison-interview.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

[Demeter]

1. Using His Time for Reflection

Losing a son to suicide wasn't part of his plan, either, I'll betcha.

[elleng]

2. Sure should have known.

[Merlot]

3. So it's now the banks fault?

try again, bernie...

[beac]

4. "Why, oh WHY, didn't they stop me???" is his excuse?

And yes, Bernie, some of them probably knew you were an amoral, lying, cheating, thieving POS. It doesn't make you less of one.

[Bozita]

5. "Too Big To Fail" trumps “Willful Blindness” every time

It's in the rules.

[UpInArms]

6. such a familiar refrain -

someone should have stopped me from committing such heinous acts -

those environmentalists should have stopped the polluters

those constitutionalists should have stopped the criminals

those (fill in the blank) should have stopped the (fill in the blank)

reminds me of Norquist saying that the ACLU should have stood up against his crap

......

I spit in their general direction

[BenzoDia]

7. Man, I don't mean to kick a man when he's down. But this guy really doesn't seem sorry.

[jtuck004]

8. They were far too busy with their own Ponzi schemes Bernie. n/t

[hunter]

9. Small fry.

Compared to, say, Bank of America.

Poor Mr. Madoff. He wasn't too big to fail.

[tpsbmam]

10. YOUR family, you piece of shit?!! How about all of the other people who lost everything.

It's possible it's just how the article was written but he doesn't seem apologetic at all about the incredible damage he did.

Instead, he said this:

In an e-mail written on Jan. 13, he observed that many long-term clients made more in legitimate profits from him in the years before the fraud than they could have elsewhere. “I would have loved for them to not lose anything, but that was a risk they were well aware of by investing in the market,” he wrote.

That's it? That's what you have to fucking offer, you waste of oxygen?

Lest you think it was just the rich he devastated, here are a few others who Bernie wiped out or seriously damaged:

Fairfield, CT town pension fund

Yeshiva University

New York University

Fire & Police Pension Assn of Colorado

United Association Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 267 in Syracuse, pension and health care funds


I wish I believed in heaven & hell so I could think of you rotting in hell for the rest of your life. I hope the remainder of your life sucks beyond anything you could imagine.

:grr:

[bettyellen]

13. "a risk they were well aware of by investing" - he didn't invest it and what's more...

his family had to have known with the jobs they had, it was part of the jobs they had to know this stuff.
he really is not a bit sorry, is he?

[defendandprotect]

11. Deregulation was a LICENSE -- a green light -- for corporate fraud -- !!

With the big pay off in the financial coup -- $12 trillion!!

[Imagevision]

12. Hey bernie you caused your kid to kill himself...STFU!!!!

[Swagman]

14. he is probably right !!..doesn't make him any less guilty

the banks are crooks

[robcon]

15. A classic: shoving blame to others.

Most banks, and other financial observers, believe an audited report. The fact that the auditor was on the take was not considered, IMO.