A Letter To Madoff

Excuse me. "Sank", not sunk.

This is a crime that rises to the level of capital punishment. It sunk the Innocence Project: an organ set up to free innocent people from death row. Madoff has already been responsible for at least one death- who knows how many more will die prematurely from stress and suicide. How many children will go unborn because of the disruption of a generation by impoverishment? But the loss of the Innocence Project, alone will surely kill several people before it is reinstated. Shame on you is insufficient. God Damn you, Madoff.

Given the size of this scam, it is inconceivable that the USA court would allow this baster to live in the conform of his luxury home. The belated "24-hour" confinement within the apartment is equally absurd as it served no useful punishment purpose. The current situation certainly does not do justice to about a person who has already confessed to his crime. Madoff is not being punished as he should be. He is probably laughing at the people who he has hurt so brutally, within his mind, Madoff is laughing and thinking...."ah all you suckers who have given me your money and trust, look at me, stilling living in luxury and in comfort. We have tons of your cash stashed in our home safe to pay for such luxuries. Also when the court convenes, I will hire the most expensive and best defense lawyers, who will keep me out of jail until I die. And in the unlikely event that they lose and I am sentenced to jail, I will claim poor health or other medical problems that will keep me out of jail forever. And there is nothing you can do about this, as this is the Way of the American justice system."

Based on the Rabbi???s brilliant and sad letter, it came to mind that instead of using the phrase to be ???ripped off???, in cases like this we could introduce a new verb ???to be madoffed???. But it would be pronounced ???made off??? (as in ???made off with people???s life savings???) and could be ascribed to somebody who is worse than evil ??? instead of a ???mad cow???, this is a ???mad off??? person. But I afraid that all that will happen instead is that people will use an old verb that so many righteous people have tried to put behind us and that is ???to Jew??? somebody.

As I said below, the real condemnation here should be of leaders of Wall Street, their cronies in government, greed, laisser-faire, and criminal indiference. Maybe with a new government it might get better. Apparently, Enron was not enough. What do we need to happen - a meteor crash?

I was a relatively early victim when Morgan Stanley (who has now been allowed to become a bank?!!) downloaded into my retirement account some abou- to-become illiquid inventory it had in stock and wanted to dump, telling me that "it was as good as cash", and when it became illquid refused to return my money. Basically, Morgan Stanley screwed many of their good customers, including myself. I will never do business with them again after basically raiding my retirement account.

I warn you, and I am practicing litigation attorney, once you get screwed, there is little recourse, because of the way the government allows these crooks to run their so-called investment and brokerage business. There will be nobody there to look after you; not the SEC, nor the attorneys general, nor private attorneys. The only way you can be safe is by being extremely vigilant, and trusting nobody. And if you wish to move out your money from under you pillow, then you must do as President Regan said - verify, and keep on verifying.

It is true that affinity fraud is easier to perpetrate because one preys on the premise that "one of us" could always be trusted. I believe people may have felt that Medoff was cheating, but they also felt that if he got caught he would be the one to pay while the investors would keep the fruit of these ill gotten gains. No one imagined that it was a Ponzi scheme. There were, however, many who did not realize that Medoff had been entrusted with their money and their fault was merely trusting their money manager to act in their interest. That is, however, why one has a money manager. S/he is supposed to have the expertise that one may lack. In the end, this relationship is based on trust. Medoff wasn't the only cheater here, there were plenty of people entrusted to safeguard entire incomes who let Medoff do the "hard work" while they took large commissions for merely handing over the money. Rothchild was asked about how he accumulated his wealth. His answer: I always sold too soon.

Here we go again! The learned Rabbi heaps it on, but, as in most of his articles, misses the point, and pursues a red herring. Maybe Newsweek can find some people with insight to write for it.

This is nothing to do with Jewishness, it is do with the fact that, as in other scams, Madoff mixes with and persuades his brethren to "invest". In this case, many are Jewish. But so what?

The real condemnation here should be of leaders of Wall Street, their cronies in government, greed, laisser-faire, and criminal indiference. Maybe with a new government it might get better. Apparently, Enron was not enough. What do we need to happen - a meteor crash?

As for Madoff, he has dug his own hole, and he knows it. So if I were him, and wanted to look for some redemption, I would probably become Catholic and kiss off this Rabbi.

Rabbi Gellman wrote a good letter, but the truth is Madoff is a psychopath in the true definition of the word. His capacity to do what he did is a result of a personality disorder right out of the textbook. Thus, it doesn't really matter what is said to him, or how bad he feels. He can't help himself.

Many of the victims were not paying attention. Many other victims knew his quarterly and annual returns were impossibly consistent and positive at all times regardless of market conditions. People need to protect themselves when things don't pass the smell test. Investmentdecionmakers for institutions, including charities, have the same responsibility for their resources.

Clearly Madoff man belongs in jail. But the lessons for individual and institutional investors is not new: It's necessary to stay on top of your investments. If it's too good to be true it probably isn't true. Diversify.

The Honourable Rabbi Gellman does have a point that Madoff's action has reinvigorated the "Jew game" but one has to ask the question, "is Madoff the only culprit from his community responsible for fraud and profiteering?"

One should never generalise but in my experience, I found Jewish people to be meticulous and shrewed in business and unfortunately, a handful to be extremely greedy (which is a human trait rather than a Jewish trait). Jewish people tend to focus on employment that delivers profitable returns and besides the movie business, the finance industry is perhaps the sector that delivers largest amounts of profits. It is natural to assume that a percentage of all people in any sector are devious or have criminal minds and it is simply unfortunate that in an industry with a large percentage of Jewish employees one will find more than a more than a handful of "Jewish" criminals.

But it's not just Madoff. In recent years, a number of high profile Jewish businessmen/women have been at the centre of financial scandals or suspicious activities. Larry Silverstein and associate of Benjamin Netanyahu managed to collect $4.55B from insurance from the destruction of WTC only after signing a policy against terrorist attacks two months before 9/11. A conincidence, perhaps? Shirley Porter, Hieress of the UK based Grocery store, was involved in a cash-for-homes scandal and the dealings of Robert Maxwell are well known.

But, every "religion" has its fair share of corrupt people so it's illogical to focus on one faith.

In saying that, I don't think it's fear of the "Jew game" that the Rabbi is afraid of. The more Americans see the word "Jew" attached to criminal activities, especially in the financial sector which is associated to the loss of their life savings, the more public opinion will turn againts support for the State of Israel which needs US support for its very existence and donates billions of dollars every year to.

I don't think the Rabbi needs to worry though. The US public can scream as much as they want. The entire Federal Reserve can be stolen by 'financial terrorists' like Madoff and the life savings of the US public (including the Evangelical supporters of Israel) can be left with empty pockets but with Rahm Emmanuel as President-elect Obama's Chief of Staff and the majority of the Democratic Party in the pocket's of AIPAC, US-Israel relations will remain as strong as ever.

The Honourable Rabbi Gellman does have a point that Madoff's action has reinvigorated the "Jew game" but one has to ask the question, "is Madoff the only culprit from his community responsible for fraud and profiteering?"

One should never generalise but in my experience, I found Jewish people to be meticulous and shrewed in business and unfortunately, a handful to be extremely greedy (which is a human trait rather than a Jewish trait). Jewish people tend to focus on employment that delivers profitable returns and besides the movie business, the finance industry is perhaps the sector that delivers largest amounts of profits. It is natural to assume that a percentage of all people in any sector are devious or have criminal minds and it is simply unfortunate that in an industry with a large percentage of Jewish employees one will find more than a more than a handful of "Jewish" criminals.

But it's not just Madoff. In recent years, a number of high profile Jewish businessmen/women have been at the centre of financial scandals or suspicious activities. Larry Silverstein and associate of Benjamin Netanyahu managed to collect $4.55B from insurance from the destruction of WTC only after signing a policy against terrorist attacks two months before 9/11. A conincidence, perhaps? Shirley Porter, Hieress of the UK based Grocery store, was involved in a cash-for-homes scandal and the dealings of Robert Maxwell are well known.

But, every "religion" has its fair share of corrupt people so it's illogical to focus on one faith.

In saying that, I don't think it's fear of the "Jew game" that the Rabbi is afraid of. The more Americans see the word "Jew" attached to criminal activities, especially in the financial sector which is associated to the loss of their life savings, the more public opinion will turn againts support for the State of Israel which needs US support for its very existence and donates billions of dollars every year to.

I don't think the Rabbi needs to worry though. The US public can scream as much as they want. The entire Federal Reserve can be stolen by 'financial terrorists' like Madoff and the life savings of the US public (including the Evangelical supporters of Israel) can be left with empty pockets but with Rahm Emmanuel as President-elect Obama's Chief of Staff and the majority of the Democratic Party in the pocket's of AIPAC, US-Israel relations will remain as strong as ever.

I disagree with one of Rabbi Gellman's unspoken assumptions that Bernie Madoff was fundamentally evil - rather, I think he was fundamentally weak. I don't Believe Bernie Madoff set out to do what he did out of a primary desire to harm others in the manner Rabbbi Gelman describes. Rather, the Bernie Madoff story is one of the consequences of the fear to admit a mistake and human frailty pyramided to hugely monsterous and barely imaginable proportions. I don't see any of this as having anything to do with religion. Some Jewish people have fragile egos; so do others.

Before one is Religious, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, one is human. Mr. Madoff is only human. As an Athiest I have realized long ago that Choice, Consequence, and Responsibility is what really bonds humanity together. To all of the Jewish people of the USA and the World please take note that crime and greed have no boundries. Please do not feel dispair, or responsible for Mr. Madoff . It is more important now than ever to teach our children about ethics, kindness, love, charity than to point fingers. After all our own culture places Greed, Money and Wealth at the top of the pile. The real question is, Why would we not expect this to happen? Be Thankful to have woken up today. That is your gift! Make good use of it!

What I am more amazed by the lack of fairness of our society and judicial system when it comes to white color crimes.
Here is a guy who stole $50+ billion dollars. Firstly the judge asked for $10 million bound (less then 0.02% of total fraud). When he was unable to come up with this money they released him with under electronic monitoring. However, if a poor person who steals $10 from 7/11 he would be in thrown in slammer with very less likely hood of bail.
These white color criminals get away with very large crimes because they can afford the best brains and our criminal justice system is focused on punishing petty criminals.
Hundreds of thousand of people will suffer from this criminal activity of Bernard Madoff, and when he would be convicted he would end up in some minimum security prison.
The corruption in the elite would continue as long as we continue to treat then as elite criminals.

The culture of greed, personified in Bernie Madoff should be a lesson to us all. It has been said that money is the root of all evil-no. The love of money is the root of all evil, and Mr. Madoff has sold his soul for the devil's lucre. He has shamed not only himself, but has also brought down underserved opprobrium on an entire race of people that have done nothing...except try to find their way in peace. For whom the bell tolls...it tolls for thee Mr. Madoff, it tolls for thee.

I am sickened at this disgusting turn of events, my stomach recoils at how not only individual investors were hurt by this man, but also so many charities that help all people, hospitals, food services, homeless shelters, the list goes on and on and it is a tragedy.

Then to make it worse, there are the anti-semitic slurs to deal with, Bernie Madoff has brought shame on the Jewish people. And as much as we may want to, we can't separate the man from his religion here, because the haters are gleefully relishing this fact and are spewing hatred all over the place.
Just look at the ADL site - reporting on this -
http://www.adl.org/PresRele/ASUS_12/5422_12.htm
Mainstream Web Sites Flooded with Anti-Semitic Comments in Wake of Madoff Scandal

Rabbi Gellman is right here in his letter - why does the media identify Madoff as a Jew, but not other newsmakers as their religion? I blame the media also for making this worse and feeding the anti-semites with reasons for hatred.