Man who wouldn’t talk takes $65b secret to jail

While Bernard Madoff sits in his New York cell facing a life behind bars today, the search for any accomplices continues.

By choosing to plead guilty in court, Madoff has robbed the prosecution and victims of the chance to hear details of how he perpetrated the world’s biggest fraud to date. Questions about whether Madoff acted alone or in concert remain unanswered but the victims of Madoff’s fraud will hope that remains a temporary state of affairs.

Speaking in court yesterday, the assistant US attorney, Marc Litt, said:

“The Government’s investigation continues. Both in terms of finding assets and anyone else who may be responsible for this fraud.”

The biggest question marks hang over whether family members including Madoff’s wife Ruth, brother Peter, sons Mark and Andrew and niece and legal adviser Shana played any role in the fraud.

Ruth Madoff owns $US70 million of property, including a $US7 million Manhattan penthouse, and has caught the attention of investigators who want to seize assets in the wake of the scandal. Her lawyers claim her assets are unrelated to the fraud.

Lawyers to sons Mark and Andrew, who held trading positions at Bernard Madoff Investment Securities, insist they

“had no knowledge whatsoever of the fraud”.

The two were responsible for blowing the whistle on their father after he told them:

“It’s all just one big lie.”

The role of brother Peter, chief compliance officer at the company, has also been called into question by lawyers who point out he would have been responsible for checking whether trades had taken place and the veracity of claims over the fund’s returns. The whole family will be under scrutiny.

Some of Madoff’s victims came to Lower Manhattan on Thursday to catch a glimpse of the man who had taken away their life savings, robbing them of their children’s college funds and of their pride.

“To see him for the first time, I’m just very emotional and close to falling apart,”

Sharon Lissauer said, biting back tears.

“I lost all my savings. I don’t have anything else. If only he could reveal where [the assets] are and help make the investors whole.”

As television helicopters circled overhead and hundreds of cameramen and photographers crowded around, Madoff walked briskly into the courthouse. He would not re-emerge. He pleaded guilty to 11 felony charges, including securities fraud, mail fraud and money laundering. At 11.13am, a little more than an hour after the proceedings began, an expressionless Madoff was led away to jail. Sentencing is set for June 16.

If the nation’s economic crisis needed a face, Madoff supplied it. And if average citizens watching their retirement savings sink needed to see a Wall Street villain hauled off in handcuffs, Madoff on Thursday supplied that, too.

Zsa Zsa Gabor might look back on her film roles with a wry smile today. The Hungarian-born actress once acted in a little-known film entitled The Man Who Wouldn’t Talk.

As one of the victims of Madoff’s $65 billion fraud, the irony of the title is unlikely to be lost on the nonagenarian film star.

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