madoff yachts

Bernie Madoff's "Bull" for Sale in Florida

Two yachts and Mercedes are on the block in auction of Ponzi scammer's assets.

Nov. 17, 2009 — -- On Tuesday at 4 p.m., a Mercedes and three boats, including a 55-foot yacht, that were once owned by convicted scammer Bernard Madoff will be sold at an auction that could yield several million dollars for Madoff's victims . By Monday evening, 51 people had put up the necessary $100,000 for the right to bid, according to Bob Toney, president and CEO of National Liquidators, which is running the auction for the U.S. government .

"I am pleased and surprised that the interest is this high," said Toney. "It may not go up much more but it could. It's the first time I've auctioned off three boats owned by a man who embezzled $65 billion dollars, so nothing surprises me at this point."

Click here to go behind the scenes of Brian Ross' investigation into Bernie and Ruth Madoff.

The sale includes Madoff's 55-foot yacht, called the "Bull," the 38-foot "Sitting Bull," and a 24-foot boat called "Little Bull," as well as Madoff's black 1999 Mercedes Benz convertible. According to the auction catalog, "Elegant appointments abound inside the cabin" of the "Bull," a restored 40-year-old Rybovich sportfishing boat. "A luxurious master stateroom and comfortable guest staterooms offer the kind of comfort and ambience found in a stately and dignified home.

The biggest vessel on offer, however, belonged to former Madoff sidekick, Frank DiPascali. Once Madoff's chief financial officer, DiPascali plead guilty to 10 counts for his role in Madoff's Ponzi scheme . DiPascali, who is cooperating with authorities, has not yet been sentenced. He faces up to 125 years in prison. Madoff is currently serving a 150-year term.

Click here to purchase "The Madoff Chronicles" from Amazon.com.

Jennifer Crane of the U.S. Marshal's asset forfeiture division told the Associated Press that an auction of Madoff's personal belongings held in New York this past Saturday earned more than $1 million.

Toney said he didn't want to make specific predictions about how much the Fort Lauderdale auction will bring. "As with any high-profile auction, we're letting the market set the value," said Toney. "But with that number of bidders you'll get what the Marshals want out of the boats and hopefully a little bit more. "

"We don't know how much notoriety may add to the price, but it has certainly added interest," added Toney. A life preserver from the Bull sold for $7,500 at this weekend's auction in New York.

All of the proceeds of the auction will go to Madoff's victims. The administrative costs of the auction, said Toney, are covered by the government. Three or four more auctions of Madoff's personal items are expected, and an $8.9 million penthouse in Manhattan and a $7.9 million Palm Beach mansion are also on the market. Both prices have been reduced since the homes first went on the market two months ago.

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Toney said he didn't want to make specific predictions about how much the Fort Lauderdale auction will bring. \"As with any high-profile auction, we're letting the market set the value,\" said Toney. \"But with that number of bidders you'll get what the Marshals want out of the boats and hopefully a little bit more. \"

\"We don't know how much notoriety may add to the price, but it has certainly added interest,\" added Toney. A life preserver from the Bull sold for $7,500 at this weekend's auction in New York.

Whole Lotta Bull: Madoff's Yachts Go on Auction Block

Ponzi schemer's yachts to be sold to highest bidder in fort lauderdale, by ari odzer and brian hamacher • published november 16, 2009 • updated on november 17, 2009 at 7:13 am.

They're the pricey toys Bernie Madoff used to cruise the waters off Florida and Long Island, and tomorrow they can be yours -- if your bank account's big enough.

Three of the convicted Ponzi schemer's big boats, along with another that belonged to his CFO will be auctioned off in Fort Lauderdale tomorrow, and you'll need at least $50,000 to get in the door.

The highlight of the auction will be "The Bull," a 55-foot vintage Rybovich fishing yacht, restored to museum quality.

Designed for tournament fishing, the auction description said it includes "A luxurious master stateroom, and comfortable guest staterooms offer the kind of comfort and ambience found in a stately and dignified home."

Also auctioned off will be " Sitting Bull " and "Little Bull," smaller luxury yachts but no less opulent than "The Bull." "Sitting Bull" is the 38-foot yacht Madoff kept in Montauk, Long Island, and "Little Bull" a 24-foot Maverick fishing boat.

The boats were seized by U.S. Marshals on April 1, the same day Madoff's $9 million Palm Beach mansion was seized.

The $65 billion Ponzi schemer apparently had quite a bull fetish, littering his Florida and New York homes with bull statues, bull paintings and just about anything else he could slap a bull on.

Madoff, 71, was sentenced in July to 150 years behind bars for bilking investors out of billions.

Marshals selected National Liquidators of Fort Lauderdale to handle tomorrow's auction, which will also include a 61-foot yacht that belonged to former Madoff CFO Frank DiPascali, as well as Madoff's black 1999 Mercedes CLK 320 convertible. 

U.S. Marshals couldn't believe how well kept the 1969 Rybovich was when they seized it in April.

"A lot of money was put into maintaining this boat," said Barry Golden, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service. "This boat was extremely well kept, extremely clean. Engine compartment was spotless. It looked like somebody took a bottle of 409 and scrubbed it every day."

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The boat is estimated to be worth about $2.2 million, but judging on the big money that this weekend's auction of Madoff trinkets in New York brought in, National Liquidators is likely hoping to bring in more than face value.

The auction raised nearly $900,000, and included Madoff's Rolex watch and personalized Mets jacket and jewelry belonging to wife Ruth.

Tomorrow's auction is a private event, and bidders will have to show they can afford Bernie's ill-gotten baubles. It'll take a $50,000 deposit to bid on "Little Bull" or the Mercedes, and $100,000 to bid on anything else.

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Make Off with Madoff’s Yacht

• By Daniel Harding, Jr.
• Updated: December 7, 2010

The infamous conspirator of the 50-billion dollar investment scam, Bernie Madoff spared no expense in the purchasing of luxury goods such as the custom 88-foot Leopard Yacht aptly named Bull . Wyles Hardy and Company, who are joint liquidators of Madoff Securities International, have announced the yacht is ready to be sold at auction.

Bull features accommodations for six in three staterooms as well as three crew berths. Powered is supplied by twin MTU M92s that have logged less than 300 hours running the financier and guests along the south of France. The reported cruising speed is 33 knots.

With a list price of $6 million when new in 2007, Bull has the potential of being sold for more than his last three yachts that were auctioned off for an approximate combined total of 1 million dollars.

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Bernie Madoff’s Yacht - ‘Bull’ - To Be Sold

It’s akin to buying Al Capone’s violin case: British asset realisation specialist Wyles Hardy & Co. is offering more property from Bernie Madoff, the world’s greatest fraudster, this time a 27-metre Leopard superyacht .

The $50bn (£35bn) investment scam generated enough money for Madoff to treat himself to some of life’s luxuries. A mid-November New York auction saw the sale of some of his ill-gotten gains, such as a $67,500 Rolex watch , his wife’s $550,000 diamond engagement ring and $6000 embroidered velveteen slippers .

This generated $2,000,000 for creditors, and added to a previous auction which had totaled $1,000,000. Now, one of the jewels in the crown of Madoff's possessions is up for grabs: the 2007 27-metre superyacht ‘Bull’ .

Currently lying off Gibraltar, the boat has just been released from full out-of-the-water maintenance and, according to Wyles Hardy & Co. , is “ready for immediate use”.

The twin MTU M92 engines , each producing 2285HP at 2450rpm, have seen less than 300 hours' running time. The motor yacht has six berths, which number an owner’s en-suite stateroom; VIP en-suite cabin; guest en-suite cabin; and three crew berths.

Having a list price of 6m euros when new, it was constructed in 2007 by Cantiere Navale Arno (Pisa, Italy) to Madoff’s specifications. The yacht comes complete with monogrammed towels and bespoke bed covers embroidered with Ruth and Bernie Madoff’s initials.

Concerning Madoff’s ‘Bull’, Gordon Wyles , Chairman of Wyles Hardy & Co ., has made the following statement: “Although we have had significant interest in Europe, we are keen to test the US market before we conclude a sale as we believe that this yacht’s association with the largest swindle of the 20th Century makes ‘Bull’ almost a piece of American heritage.

“It should prove attractive to US-based buyers, with its intriguing charter-market opportunities.”

For further details, and to register expressions of interest, please contact Gordon Wyles , [email protected] , or Simon Withall , [email protected] . Or call +44 (0)1442 832234.

Text: Steve Wakefield Photos: Wyles Hardy & Co ClassicInside - The Classic Driver Newsletter Free Subscription!

Madoff's yacht, 2 smaller boats up for auction

A vintage 55-foot (16.7-meter) yacht named "Bull" and two smaller boats that once belonged to imprisoned financier Bernard Madoff are headed for the auction block, along with an even bigger yacht once owned by Madoff's right-hand man.

Madoff's 1969 Rybovich sportfisher, a wooden boat meticulously restored, is the prize offering at Tuesday's private auction. As of Monday, 29 people had put up a $100,000 deposit for the opportunity to bid and more were expected to register, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

"People have heard of it. It's a piece of history," said Bob Toney, president and CEO of National Liquidators, which is handling the auction for the government.

Also for sale are Madoff's 38-foot (11.5-meter) Shelter Island runabout, named "Sitting Bull," and a 24-foot (7.3-meter) Maverick center console named "Little Bull." Then there's Madoff's black 1999 Mercedes-Benz CLK 320 convertible, which has just 12,800 miles (20,600 kilometers) on the odometer, and a 61-foot (18.6-meter) Viking fishing yacht formerly owned by Madoff's ex-chief financial officer, Frank DiPascali.

Together, the vessels and car could fetch several million dollars, but officials don't want to put a price tag on any particular item before the auction. Madoff's notoriety could also boost the final sales prices, said Jennifer Crane of the Marshals' asset forfeiture division.

"You can't really put a price on this," she said. "Our goal is to make as much money as possible."

The proceeds will go to investors in Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme. He is currently serving a 150-year federal prison sentence in North Carolina.

An auction this past weekend in New York of jewelry, dishes, clothing and other personal property brought in more than $1 million, Crane said, with three or four additional auctions of personal property yet to be scheduled.

Madoff's penthouse apartment in Manhattan is on the market for $8.9 million — recently reduced by $1 million — and the asking price for his waterfront Palm Beach mansion is $7.9 million. A beach house in the Hamptons on New York's Long Island sold last month for $9.4 million.

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Watch CBS News

Madoff's Yacht Seized; Home May Be Next

By Yvonne Halee

April 1, 2009 / 12:39 PM EDT / CBS

U.S. Marshals seized Bernard Madoff's $1.5 million yacht from a slip in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The 55-foot-long yacht, named "Bull" was towed while surrounded by federal law enforcement. The yacht is the sister ship of a $7 million yacht of the same name that currently sits in the South of France.

A source with knowledge of the case told CBS News that the government is in the midst of a systematic seizure of any and all property owned by the Madoff's and further adding that "The house in Florida is next."

Additionally, a second vessel known as a Pathfinder: a 24-foot-long boat, named "Little Bull," also moored in Fort Lauderdale, was seized by federal agents

In court documents dated March 15, the government says Madoff's property is "subject to forfeiture as a result of the offenses charged."

When questioned about today's events Madoff's attorney, Ira Sorkin, told CBS News the couple had "no objection" to the seizure or sale of the Florida home.

CBS News previously reported that in December 2006 Ruth Madoff applied, and was eventually granted, a so-called "homestead" exemption. Under Florida law, that could have technically kept the couple's $9.4 million Palm Beach mansion out of the hands of creditors. Legal sources told CBS News that today's seizure of the yacht is a clear sign the feds aren't bound to state laws and effectively renders the home exemption moot.

The U.S. Attorney's and U.S. Marshal's offices declined to comment on the seizure of the yacht and any impending seizures.

Madoff is the former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange who was charged with operating a pyramid scheme that has been called the largest investor fraud ever.

On March 12, Madoff pled guilty to an 11-count criminal complaint, admitting to defrauding thousands of investors. Federal prosecutors estimated client losses, which included fabricated gains, of nearly $65 billion.

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The man behind the monster: bernie madoff’s life in prison and his reflections on crimes.

In 2011, Bernie Madoff, the financier convicted of the biggest fraud in history, was six months into a 150-year jail sentence in the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, NC, when he contacted journalist Richard Behar, thanking him for his condolence card after the death of his son Mark.

“That first email stated that Madoff was seeking to add me to his contacts list,” writes investigative reporter Behar in “Madoff: The Final Word” (Avid Reader Press). “I had the option of accepting or blocking him forever. 

“In hindsight, I sometimes wish I’d chosen the latter.”

Over the course of the next decade, the men exchanged more than 300 emails, with Behar often sending Madoff money to pay for his Internet access in prison.

There were dozens of handwritten letters, more than 50 telephone conversations and three in-person interviews as Behar set about writing his account of the Ponzi scheme that saw Madoff swindle investors out of some $68 billion. 

At their first face-to-face meeting at Butner, Madoff ran through his daily routine, from working in the kitchens to reading books, Leon Uris’s 1953 novel “Battle Cry” being a favorite.

Behar also brought a stack of quarters so Madoff could avail himself of the jail’s vending machine.  “No, you have to do it,” he said to Behar. “I’ll have a Diet Coke.” 

“Ouch,” writes Behar. “The greatest fraudster in history was not allowed to touch a coin. A billionaire who was once among the biggest market makers at the New York Stock Exchange not permitted now to get a soda for himself.”

The scale of the deception explained in “The Final Word” beggars belief.

“Sixty-eight billion bucks, laid end to end in dollar bills, would encircle the Earth approximately 265 times. Now add another 104 circles to calculate the fraud’s value in today’s money: $100 billion, give or take a billion,” explains Behar. 

“That’s nearly 2 million times what the average American worker earns in a year.”

At the time of his arrest on Dec. 11, 2008, Bernie Madoff had more than 4,900 active clients, with another 40,000 people whose investments had passed through Madoff’s company, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities (BLMIS).

In total, there was an estimated $68 billion of assets attributed to Madoff and his investments but, as Behar points out, there was actually less than $300 million left in his coffers.

“Madoff made $68 billion disappear almost overnight,” he writes. “Bernie had engineered the greatest known fraud in human history.”

The victims were individuals and family trusts, colleges and charities, hedge funds and pension funds. 

Even banks entrusted Madoff with their money. 

Among the high-profile targets were movie maestro Steven Spielberg and entertainment mogul David Geffen, talk show host Larry King, actors Zsa Zsa Gabor, Kevin Bacon and John Malkovich and Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax.

The world’s richest woman, Liliane Bettencourt, was also conned, as well as the International Olympic Committee and some New York universities. 

“Those financially harmed — destroyed, in many cases — by Bernie reads like a Who’s Screwed Who in the sports, business, entertainment, academic, and philanthropic worlds,” writes Behar. 

Madoff didn’t care who he defrauded.

When Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize for Peace winner Elie Wiesel entrusted him with the money of his Foundation for Humanity, the non-profit organization nearly went under, losing $15 million.

Wiesel and his wife, Marion, also lost their life savings of $12 million. 

“We thought he was God, we trusted everything in his hands,” said Wiesel, whose mother and sister were gassed on arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944.

When Behar asked Madoff about whether he had any regrets about Wiesel, he simply replied: “He’s full of shit, that guy.” 

In Behar’s account, the disgraced financier also reveals how he turned down sports icons like Michael Jordan and Derek Jeter, despite approaches from their financial advisors, and how Donald Trump, in his 2009 book ‘Think Like a Champion: An Informal Education in Business and Life’, claims he saw through Madoff.

Not so, Madoff told Behar. “You know, he claimed that he never invested with me, which is true. And he said that I approached him, which is not true. I never approached him for anything,” he said. 

“You know, that’s typical Trump, to say he was smart enough not to invest.” 

Over the course of his conversations, however, Behar found a man who was capable of contrition. “What I did was terrible. I’ll never forgive myself,” he told him. “But it’s not like I planned it. If I did, I would have done it better.”

Madoff was also adamant what happened simply wasn’t the real him. “I know it’s hard to imagine, but I’m not a gambler,” Madoff told Behar. “I never played cards. Never bought lottery tickets.” 

The problem for Madoff was two-fold. 

On one hand, there were the clients who never carried out due diligence.

“That kind of blind faith is a Ponzi scammer’s lifeblood,” writes Behar.

The other issue was that as events outstripped him, it left him with no way out of the giant hole he had dug for himself by taking so much money from friends, relatives, and strangers.

Madoff was in too deep – and it took its toll.

“After a while, you start bulls–tting yourself to believe what you want to believe. And then you just block it out of your mind. I was going nuts,” he told Behar. 

“Sixteen years of doing this [Ponzi]. Not telling your wife and sons. I don’t know how I stood the stress. I woke up every morning for sixteen years feeling I’m not coming out of it. 

“I was hoping for some kind of miracle.”

Madoff’s duplicity also impacted his family.

On the second anniversary of his father’s arrest, Madoff’s oldest son Mark, 46, who worked at BLMIS but never faced criminal charges, hanged himself with his dog’s leash as his 2-year-old son, Nicholas, slept in a neighboring room in his Manhattan apartment. 

Further tragedy followed in September 2014 when Madoff’s other son, Andrew, died from cancer, aged 48. 

Diagnosed with lymphoma in 2003, his cancer went into remission but returned in 2011, something Andrew Madoff attributed to stress caused by his father’s arrest. 

“They believed in me; they looked at me a certain way, and then all of a sudden they felt betrayed, and I understand that,” Madoff told Behar by phone.

Richard Behar would speak with Madoff for over 10 years. “Bernie said often that he was counting on my book to set things straight and was upset that I still hadn’t published it after a decade of work. 

“He complained in an email that he’d probably be dead by the time it came out.”

And so it came to pass.

After suffering with chronic kidney disease for several years, Bernie Madoff died at Butner’s Federal Medical Center on April 14, 2021. 

Shortly after his death, Behar sent Madoff another email “curious whether it would just vanish into the bowels of Butner, or if I’d receive a response”. 

He did get a reply, albeit automated.

“Inmate 61727054 — MADOFF, BERNARD L no longer has access to the Trust Fund Limited Inmate Computer System; therefore, he/she may not send or receive messages.” 

The reply amused Behar. “The email seemed to suggest that Bernie was still out there somewhere, bumming quarters, a tattered Leon Uris novel in his pocket,” he writes. 

“In fact, he is nothing but ashes.” 

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This biographer exchanged emails with Bernie Madoff from prison for a decade. Here’s what he learned

• Richard Behar's new biography, "Madoff: The Final Word," takes readers into the fraudster’s final years in prison, and all that came before.
• Madoff saw a psychologist while he was in prison, and listened to NPR in the mornings.
• After running a Ponzi scheme for decades, Madoff found that new life was somewhat of a relief, Behar writes.

You probably haven't heard Bernie Madoff 's name in awhile, but that doesn't mean the infamous fraudster's story is over, or the pain he inflicted.

Irving Picard, an 83-old court-appointed trustee, still spends his days trying to claw back money from the those who benefitted from Madoff's Ponzi scheme, and to reduce the staggering losses of others.

More than 100 legal battles over the greatest known fraud in history still rage on.

Richard Behar, who has just published a new biography, " Madoff: The Final Word ," is also still trying to understand how Madoff's mind worked. What allows a person to rip off Elie Wiesel , who survived the Holocaust and went on to become a main chronicler of it? Or to sit with his wife, Ruth , in a theater and enjoy a movie while knowing that he's erased the life savings of thousands of people all over the world?

Those questions haunted Behar — who tells CNBC he has long been fascinated by con-artists. So long after most other reporters had turned their attention elsewhere, he reached out to Madoff while the financial criminal served out his 150-year prison sentence in North Carolina.

Behar started by sending his condolences to Madoff, whose son, Mark, had just died by suicide in Dec. 2010, the second anniversary of his father's arrest.

Shortly after, an email subject line popped up in Behar's inbox: "Inmate: MADOFF, BERNARD L." That message was the start to a decade-long relationship between the two men, including roughly 50 phone conversations, hundreds of emails and three in-person visits. When Madoff died in April 2021, Behar was still writing the biography. Madoff often complained to Behar that he was taking too long on the book.

"He once joked that he'd be dead when it came out, which of course turned out to be true, although I never planned it that way," Behar said.

CNBC interviewed Behar, an award-winning journalist and contributing editor of investigations at Forbes, over email this month. (The conversation has been edited and condensed for style and clarity.)

'He never asked me one personal question'

Annie Nova: You write that you're an investigative reporter with "a special fondness for scammers." Why do you think that is?

Richard Behar: I've always been mesmerized by how the brains of scammers work. I'm especially intrigued, maybe obsessed, with scammers who steal from people who are very close to them — like Madoff did.

A scamster who I visited in prison in the 1990s did something similar. Until Bernie's arrest, this guy ran the lengthiest known Ponzi scheme ever, for 11 years. He was orphaned and raised by an aunt and uncle, and yet financially devoured them, as well as his cousins, his wife's parents, his best friend — even a nun who he charmed with his alleged faith in god. I wasn't raised by my biological parents either, and spent my childhood in foster homes. I couldn't pretend to imagine doing that to people who stepped up to care for me, but it's endlessly fascinating to me. Maybe that's where that fondness for scammers is rooted.

AN: Did Madoff take any interest in your life?

RB: Through a nearly decade-long relationship, he never asked me one personal question. That was mind-boggling. I'd sometimes give him openings, like telling him I grew up in a town not far from his hometown — with a similar but poorer Jewish subculture — but he said nothing. He couldn't care less. I asked a psychologist about this, and she theorized that Bernie was such a malignant narcissist that he couldn't "hold my reality, he could only hold his own." I couldn't be a three-dimensional human being to him, because if he can imagine that, he'd have to imagine the school teacher who has lost a pension.

AN: What was the most remorse you saw him show over what he'd done?

RB: I once asked if he could ever forgive himself for the Ponzi itself, and he said "No, never." He insisted he felt great remorse for those who he stole from. But I never totally felt it. Never a tear. I asked why he didn't cry at his sentencing, and he snapped: "Of course I didn't cry; I was cried out."

'Prison was a great relief for him'

AN: How did Madoff say life in prison changed him?

RB: He never talked about it. He once described himself as feeling numb. I said, "I can't imagine what it would be like." He replied, "You don't want to know, you don't want to know."

In some ways, I think being in prison was a great relief for him. Running a half-century Ponzi has got to be exhausting. In prison, he'd typically wake up in his cell at around 4 a.m., make coffee in bed with an instant hot water machine, then read, or listen to NPR until breakfast. He worked in the kitchen, then the laundry room and then oversaw the inmates' computer room.

That last job cracked me up because he told me he could barely turn a computer on in his office, which should have been a red flag to everyone at the company that he wasn't actually trading stocks.

AN: You write that he was seeing a therapist in prison. Do we know often this was, or for how long it lasted? Did it seem to be helping him?

RB: He ended one phone chat abruptly because he had to get to one of his weekly appointments with his psychologist. When he called me afterwards, I asked how it went. He laughed and said it was helpful, that she was a "terrific lady" and that he thinks he should have done therapy years before. But even if the sessions were helpful, he said he never found the answers he sought about why he did the fraud and why he hurt so many people.

He was disturbed by press reports that called him a sociopath . He said he asked his therapist, "Am I a sociopath? A lot of clients were friends and family — how could I do this?" Bernie claims that she told him that people have the ability to compartmentalize, like mobsters that kill and then go home and hold their kids.

You just put it out of your mind. I asked if she came up with a diagnosis. He said, no, just a compartmentalizer. Maybe she told him that to make him feel better since he wasn't ever getting out.

AN: For so many years, it sounded like Madoff was just waiting to be caught. Is that right? Did he always know he wouldn't be able to get away with this? What was living in that suspended state like for him?

RB: Bernie said he was under constant stress over the Ponzi, and would talk out loud to himself sometimes in the office, because of the pressure. One of his biggest outlets for relieving the stress was sitting in dark theaters with his wife Ruth, he said, watching movies twice a week. He also said he deluded himself into thinking some "miracle" would come along to bail him out of the Ponzi, but that he knew for at least the last decade before his arrest that he'd never get out from under it.

The only time he truly relaxed, he said, was on weekends when he was out on his yacht. I interviewed a former FBI behavioral analysis expert who suggested Bernie felt safe on the boat because he could see 360 degrees around him, all the way to the horizon, so he'd have a lot of forewarning that a threat was coming.

'Not a single investor' had complained to the SEC

AN: You paint a really interesting portrait of the figure of Irving Picard, an 83-year-old court-appointed trustee, who has spent years trying to get money back for Madoff's investors. Has this been Picard's only job over the years? Why has he made this his life mission?

RB: Picard rarely talks with the press. I was just chatting with John Moscow, a former chief white-collar crimes prosecutor for the Manhattan DA's office who worked on some Madoff cases for the trustee. He said: "Irving is a very faithful public servant." He's laser focused on his task. John's words were: "He's not manic about it, but he's very close."

In my book, I quote a former federal prosecutor saying that you can probe this case for 50 years and still not get to all the truths, but Picard isn't interested in that. It's been his only bankruptcy case since four days after Bernie's arrest in 2008. He is ferocious towards net winners who won't return funds, but he can be a soft teddy bear with those who don't have the money for him to claw back. He may let them pay it over time, or he'll take someone's house but leave them a life interest in it.

AN: What do you think people get most wrong about Madoff?

RB: A lot of people who lost money get it wrong by blaming him entirely, rather than looking in the mirror and asking themselves how they could have put themselves in such danger. Madoff's consistent and high returns were simply not possible. Even so, many net losers think the government owes them because the SEC didn't capture Bernie. But that agency's mandate has never been to protect people from stupid investment decisions.

I mentioned to you that I went to a prison back in the '90s to visit the guy who had the longest-running Ponzi prior to Madoff's arrest. Just like Bernie, that swindler could not have done it without a big bank's complicity. In that case — an 11-year-long Ponzi — an investor reached out to the SEC to complain that he'd lost money even though he'd been guaranteed a preposterous 20-25% return. The scamster was arrested the following day.

In Bernie's case, not a single investor over the half-century of his fraud contacted the SEC. They were too busy splashing around in the gravy.