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The Madoff Family Splinters
Mary Altaffer / AP Photo
As Bernie Madoff’s sentencing approaches, Ruth’s sister—who lost millions—is trying to cope with her own losses, anger, and confusion. The Daily Beast’s Allan Dodds Frank reports from Palm Beach.
When Bernie Madoff is sentenced in federal court Monday, The Daily Beast can safely predict one family member who will not be there to show support: his sister-in-law Joan.
On a recent trip to The Bernie War Zone of Palm Beach and Boca Raton, Florida , where many formerly affluent people no longer can afford to flee the seasonal 95 degree heat, people who know Joan Alpern Roman painted a picture for The Daily Beast of a woman who feels as though she is a double victim—both her fortune and her good family name have been savaged by her despicable brother-in-law. The only area of forgiveness involves her younger sister Ruth Alpern Madoff, who Joan remains convinced was not a witting partner in crime with Bernie.
“It could not have been just greed. The man was living in his own world. I think he lost all sense of humanity.”
My encounters included people who go back to Far Rockaway (New York ) High School, where a half-century ago Bernard Madoff met and wooed the pert little blonde then known as Ruthie Alpern.
Until his arrest December 11, Bernard Madoff had been lionized by his extended family as its blessed benefactor and the Midas of Wall Street. Now as they try to sort out this financial massacre, these people say Bernard Madoff clearly must have been gripped by megalomaniacal mental illness.
“It could not have been just greed. The man was living in his own world. I think he lost all sense of humanity,” says a person close to Joan. “He lost all human feelings about what he was doing to people. He was crazy in the sense that he thought he was the smartest guy in the world.”
When the person close to Joan, who also lost much of the family fortune, is asked about the multimillion-dollar cash transfers Ruth handled under questionable circumstances, the answer comes in this form: “Ruthie lived a very good life. She did not question it. She may have done what he told her, but even then she should have questioned it.”
There is no explanation for Ruthie and Bernie’s attempt last December to mail watches and jewelry to Joan and to Bernie’s own sister, Sondra Weiner, of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Sondra Weiner and her husband Marvin are said to have lost $7 million. Were Ruthie and Bernie sending their “loved ones” portable stuff worth tens of thousands of dollars to hock? Did Ruthie and Bernie think the gift-wrapped baubles would somehow ameliorate Bernie’s theft of millions from their own flesh and blood? Well, if that was the thought that counted, it did not register.
Joan and Robert Roman have been so mad they contemplated appearing at federal court in New York Monday for Bernie’s sentencing before deciding that would just make their own situation worse. They remain at home in Broken Sound, the expensive, gated Boca Raton country-club community where they live.
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Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Allan Dodds Frank is a business investigative correspondent who specializes in white collar crime. He also is President of the Overseas Press Club of America, one of the many journalism organizations that protests the arrests of journalists abroad and repression of freedom of speech.
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Allan Dodds Frank is a business investigative correspondent who specializes in white collar crime. He also is President of the Overseas Press Club of America, one of the many journalism organizations that protests the arrests of journalists abroad and repression of freedom of speech.
I want a spoon.
That's what some of these people get. The only reason why some of them were going to him was because he was Jewish like them and one of their own would not do that to them. Well guess what... surprise! The moral of the story is, just because some one looks like you, doesn't mean they think like you.
Oh of course, pull out the "d%$n Jews" fangs...there are a lot more gentiles in the world than Jews, and I'll bet there's at least as high a percentage of con-artists among 'em too. If the Judaism of the Torah had been a daily concern of Madoff, he and his clients wouldn't be where they are today. And that goes for everyone who decided to ignore the ethics of the Scriptures....
or ethics period. just about everyone i know was somehow invested w/ bernie madoff & they are just working people of many ethnicities. he was in EVERYones retirement fund. the antisemitism business here is even more deluded than it is ordinarily.
The point is from the interviews most of those people went to him because he was one of them. That's what they get for being so stupid.
BS"D
Most people go on recommendations. That necessarily means they go to people who are often quite similar to them. Makes for an easier working relationship. You brought up the "Jewish" factor, and you get to live with that. Whether the Madoffs were Jewish by birth (probably not in practice) is immaterial.
"Today, it appears to be one of the first times SEC officials were out-smarted by Madoff."
B fricking S. Apparently the author of this article has never heard of Harry Markopolos. Markopolos is the ultimate whistle blower on Madoff. He started sounding his alarm in 2000. It took him close to a decade to get the SEC's attention, after being blown off many times, which are all well documented for anyone who cares to google Markopolos--- who testified before congress months ago about his long and difficult road in trying to get the SEC to pay attention to what he knew at first glance was a ponzi scheme.
The truth is the SEC was asleep at the wheel for the last decade, fed Ambian by the GOP regime. They could have stopped Madoff years ago if they had ever once paid any attention to the many well documented submissions that Markopolos presented.
As for Madoff's investors, I have very limited sympathy. I believe that Ruth's sister has to believe her own sister wouldn't hang her out to dry. I can't say what Ruth knew and what she didn't.
But I'll say what I think regarding all investors with Madoff---including one who I know personally who considers herself a victim beyond all other victims. Who was so happy with her unexplainable returns from her Madoff fund that she eventually ignored the oldest and most staunch financial wisdom to keep her funds diversified, and in the end transferred everything she had to her Madoff account.
These people got returns of 10% and over for decades, come rain, shine, or economic tumult. It tickled their greed button beyond common sense. Can't say I'd have done better myself---hard not to turn a blind eye and keep on wishing on returns like that.
But I can say that at least in retrospect I'd have the honesty to kick my self in the butt and call myself an idiot for not answering to my instincts that something was rotten in Denmark. But greed never wants to be educated as long as the wind is blowing its way.
Willful ignorance is no excuse.
My comment pertains to Ruth Madoff in particular. Did anyone see last night's 20/20. They did a story on Bernard Madoff, and a photographer was pursuing Ruth on the street. They asked her "Did you know about your husband's fraud?" She just blew him off with a F U. Her arrogance is just like her husband's.
What's the matter, Ruth? Don't you think the good citizens of New York City deserve an answer?
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An elegant sociopath, a murderer.
Dustin Hoffman will play Bernie.
Frances McDormand will play Ruth.
Laura Linney will play Joan.
I call B.S. These people are cunning and relentless. It's too obvious to hide the money in Ruth's Tel Aviv accounts so they go the next step... get a more distant family member to play "victim" and channel the money through her. Apart from the obvious Bernie, none of these people have suffered a day's inconvenience and still seem to be living their upscale NY lifestyles despite this enormous "hardship". People who've done a lot, lot less wrong are sitting on the curbside in their sneakers with a box of their possessions next to them. Yet we still see the whole Madoff circus swaning around with fur coats and designer glasses and handbags. I call BULLSH1T!
If anybody thinks that Ruth Madoff was not involved in this somehow,they have it so far up their backside that they'll never get it out.
Unless you get to look these people in the eye , You can't realize their arrogance, A wife of one of my wifes clients a Billionarious told my wife " If it wasn't for people like us there wouldn't be people like you " It is sickening, They throw away clothing costing several thousand dollars simply because one of their friends wore a similar piece in public first !!
Investors should have
laid off
Bernie Madoff
Before he made off
with all their money
Yes Madoff is bad and stole a lot of money, but by and large he stole it from very wealthy people who should have been protecting themselves more effectively. (ie diversification)
When are we going to see prosecutions of the real scum, those companies and their employees that were out there lying to and encouraging poorly educated minorities to sign up for sub-prime mortgages that they had no way of paying back, just so that could on sell the mortgages to investors on wall street and in the process destroy the US financial system. Madoff's crimes are bad but we the taxpayer are not losing a lot of money over it, unlike with AIG, Bank of America etc etc etc.
i have a question that i have not seen reported. Did madoff issue 1099's to all his clients on this money that they received before the scheme blew up?
if so, the federal treasury winds up as the only benefactor....any comments out there?
[ In fact, there's nothing unusual about investors paying tax on hedge-fund or private-equity income that they don't receive in the year it's reported. Funds commonly issue K-1 tax forms reporting that an individual earned income when the money has been reinvested in the partnership rather than distributed to the person.
"What's different in this case is that people paid taxes on money that was never there," said Ameek Ashok Ponda, a partner in the Boston office of law firm Sullivan & Worcester LLP and an adjunct professor in Boston University's Graduate Tax Program.
Richard Oppenheim, an accountant in Holmdel, N.J., who prepared tax returns for Madoff investors, said his clients received detailed statements including 1099 and 1099-DIV forms that appeared to show total proceeds from sales during the tax year. Many investors believed they were earning 12% returns on their money and paid taxes accordingly. ] excerpted from http://news.alibaba.com/article/detail/americas/100031251-1-update%253A-get ting-personal%253A-tax-rules.html,
[Legal ยป
Another View: The Government Is Madoff's Biggest Winner
March 12, 2009, 9:30 am
Andrew N. Lerman, a certified public accountant in White Plains, N.Y., argues that the biggest beneficiary of the Bernard L. Madoff scandal was the federal government through the taxes it collected. Mr. Lerman, who is working for several victims of the fraud, has spoken to several United States senators, including Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey and Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York.
Over the last two months, Congressional committees have held three hearings to address and investigate Mr. Madoff's fraud. The overwhelming majority of these hearings have been focused on some of possible lapses by government regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission and potential changes that were proposed to prevent fraud of this nature. ] excerpted from http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/another-view-the-government-is -madoffs-biggest-winner/
I am a modest amateur investor and have been for many years. Here is the thing: One will do well to get a 5% return. The Madoff victims got 10-12% return year after year, good times and bad. Even I would know that is too good to be true. Thus I give the victims some of the blame for not paying attention.
Listen Dahlings! The SEC was not asleep at the switch. They were paid off in the layers of freebie stocks and trips to Bermuda. The biggest Ponzi scheme in history has happened in front of our faces and did we even blink? Think about the banks, the US Treasury, and the Congress announcing that if we, the people of the United States, do not give congress the authority, within 3 days, to give the banking system 700 billion dollars, the entire financial system of the world will collapse. Now bobbykins, if that wasn't the biggest load of financial ponzi crap in the history of the world, and we fell for it! Bernie is a taking a big media fall. Interesting how everybody knows Bernie and his downfall but nobody is talking about the biggest screwjob in history. And look, the banks, credit card companies, and the rest of the financial sharks are back in business, doing the same thing they did before. Wall street is back in the biz and we paid for the fake movie with the end of the world scare. Bernie was just a clown to focus laughs away from the main horror story. I keep asking why people are not rioting in front of Wall Street,
why the real story is taking so long to sink in to the great American mind. Is it because the people at the top have created a new system of keeping the great unwashed happy by offering them a cell phone and cable TV and let the future collapse be viewed as a free HBO smash called, Greed.
The current situation is more interesting than this old stuff.
[The court-appointed trustee for the liquidation of the Bernard Madoff firm recently stated that he will not issue IRS 1099 forms for the 2008 fiscal year, because "there are questions about the accuracy of the BLMIS [Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC] financial records and the Trustee's experts and staff has been unable to assure the Trustee of the complete accuracy of those records."
Apparently the forensic accountants assigned to Madoff's client assets department don't know which set of books is the right one.] excerpted from http://www.ajwnews.com/archives/979.
The real problem is how this massive ponzy scheme will effect future investing.
Without investment, the American economy won't be able to stay competitive, or discover new ways to innovate.
Quality failure will have to be talked around like they do in second and third world countries when unpredicted and unintended results occur.
Quality, predictability, and serving a need, making the world a better place is the foundation which healthy and competitive economies grow and of course made America great.
When actual quality is as predicted, nothing needs to get talked around in order to fool/control people, because quality serves the people, and benefits the server.
It is a win win game and not adversarial at all.
Concepts not common in the world of bureaucracy. But nevertheless common in the quality of mercy.
[The Quality of Mercy is not Strain'd
The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.
-- William Shakespeare] excerpted from http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1501.html
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Madoff's investors got what they deserved. He had to let you into his special little clique so you could partake in the profits. They all sang his praises before he got busted. "That Bernie, what a gem! A true prince among men! Mazeltov!" Bullshit.
Another moral: Be careful what you ask for; you just may get it.
Dear Bernie: I pray the gets to you some how.
Honey, I know you and Big Bubba are still in the (how shall we say it) the "Honeymoon" phase of your relationship right now. And I'm so happy for both of you; really I am.
It must certainly be interesting figuring out how to work around each other taking care of those unmentionables, what with that terribly small cell and all, but I'm sure you'll both manage somehow. I wish there were something more I could have done for you.
I know you did your best to "stash the cash" with me as those cute gangsta' people like to say. But I feel my quick departure from the scene would be best for all. I'm sure if you were in my shoes, you'd feel the same way. I mean, let's be honest, it's not like you're ever going to be out of there so I'll just carry on the best any poor (wink-wink) woman can.
Everyone has to start-over sometime. I mean, just look at us... me headed to the Grand Cayman's and you headed to... well enough of that.
Bernie, I'll really miss the good times we had, all the covering our tracks and the way we used to laugh when you called me your "Little Grifter Girl". Oh, honey, I wish the party could have gone on for both of us, I really do.
I'll think of you often and kiss your picture every night. TTFN! Kisses always, Ruth
Thank you.
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