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Table of Contents

To Patrick,

My Life Is Yours

Introduction

On the morning of March 12, 2009, Bernard Lawrence Madoff stood inside courtroom 24-B on the twenty-fourth floor of the Daniel P. Moynihan U.S. Courthouse in downtown Manhattan. Outside, a strong, wintry spring wind blew, but inside the air was stuffy and hot with tension. The seventy-year-old Madoff sat just past the wooden barrier that separated the public seating gallery. He did not look at anyone, just stared straight ahead, as everyone in the room and on the closed-circuit television watched his every move. Always impeccably dressed, Madoff wore a bespoke business suit in his trademark charcoal gray, paired with a lighter gray silk tie. He was flanked by four attorneys, two on either side of him. His longtime lawyer, Ira Sorkin, was seated on his immediate right, and another attorney, Daniel Horwitz, sat to his left. In front of Madoff and his lawyers were another table and chairs, full of federal prosecutors, but Madoff could see only the backs of their heads.

Just a few months before, Madoff had commanded the respect and admiration of Wall Street, of his wealthy friends and his charities, of his thousands of investors and believers. But on this day, he commanded nothing and no one, except his own voice. On this morning, at ten a.m. exactly, Madoff faced up to 150 years in prison on eleven criminal counts.

Madoff rested his fingers on the top of the table in front of him and occasionally took a sip of water from a glass. As U.S. District Judge Dennis Chin entered, everyone in the room stood, including Madoff, the phalanx of attorneys, dozens of reporters, and a court sketch artist. There was also a mob of angry Madoff investors, calling themselves victims and casualties, who had come to seek vengeance on the man who had done them wrong.

You wish to plead guilty to all eleven counts? Judge Chin looked up matter-of-factly and spoke somewhat kindly to Madoff.

Nodding his head of wavy, pewter-colored hair, Madoff listened and answered calmly throughout Judge Chins many questions and clarifications that followed: You understand you are giving up the right to a trial? If there were a trial, you could see and hear witnesses, offer evidence on your behalf, and so forth. Judge Chin wanted to make sure this was what Madoff had chosen: to plead guilty, and thus not to cooperate with the governments investigation or to indict anyone else in his crime, the $65 billion Ponzi scheme that was proving to be Americas largest financial fraud ever. No, Madoff didnt want a public trial; he didnt want to have to point the finger at anyone else. Given the scope of the charges against him, it was a stubborn move.

To each question, Madoff answered, Yes, I do. Madoff was waiving his right to due process in a court of law. He was going to plead guilty and would alone admit to everything he was charged with, including securities fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, making false statements, and perjury.

And that was exactly how he wanted it.

Madoffs blue eyes looked weary and his expression resigned. No longer was he sporting that insane-looking smirk, the smileof what? the unburdened?that had incensed everyone who had seen him walking around freely while he was out on bail in the days after his December 11, 2008, confession and arrest. Now, three months later, the smirk had vanished. He began wringing his hands. One of the prosecutors in front of him, Acting U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin, stood up to address the court. The charges reflect an extraordinary array of crimes committed by Bernard Madoff for over twenty years, Dassin said. While the alleged crimes are not novel, the size and scope of Mr. Madoffs fraud are unprecedented. Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Litt, the chief prosecutor in the case, then stood up and told the judge that Madoff could face up to 150 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.

Finally, it was Madoffs turn to speak. The room stilled.

Mr. Madoff, tell me what you did, Judge Chin said.

Madoff had prepared a statement, which he read out loud from stapled paper pages. He took full blame. He wasnt going to cooperate with the prosecutors, wasnt going to help them out and bargain for leniency or a lesser sentence. He wasnt about to indict his family or anyone else for helping in this frauda fraud so large, encompassing more than four thousand client accounts, that even the Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, whose charity had lost millions, had been driven to calling Madoff a thief and a scoundrel in public.

Madoff wanted everyone to believe that the crime was his and his aloneeven though investigators suspected that his wife, his sons, his brother, and other relatives and top lieutenants helped carry it out.

Madoffs voice was a strange blend of Queens-accented Noo Yawk and a soft but firm monotone: Your honor, for many years up until my arrest on December 11, 2008, I operated a Ponzi scheme.... I am actually grateful for this first opportunity to publicly speak about my crimes, for which I am so deeply sorry and ashamed.... I am painfully aware I have deeply hurt many, many people.

When I began my Ponzi scheme, I believed it would end shortly and I would be able to extricate myself and my clients from the scheme. I am here today to accept responsibility for my crimes by pleading guilty and, with this plea allocution, explain the means by which I carried out and concealed my fraud.... I always knew this day would come. I never invested the money. I deposited it into a Chase Manhattan bank.

Madoffs statement took only about ten minutes, and while he spoke he did not turn to or eye the packed crowd in the gallery. When he finished, he sat down, and the courtroom broke out into a series of murmurs. Madoff would not have to spell out any details of his crime, nor would he implicate anyone else. There was just his guilty plea and no further explanation.

The tension crescendoed, for now it was time for three victims to make short statements. The first, George Nierenberg, took the podium and glared over at Madoff.

I dont know if youve had a chance to turn around and look at the victims! Nierenberg snapped.

Madoff then glanced over his shoulder, but Judge Chin admonished Nierenberg to return to the argument at hand. For what reason, if any, should the judge not accept Madoffs guilty plea, and not send him to jail?

A filmmaker whose family had lost everything, Nierenberg wanted to know why there was no conspiracy charge by the governmentsurely there were other people who had helped Madoff in his decades-long fraud who should be held accountable too. He didnt commit this alone. Im not suggesting that you reject the plea, but that there is another count to consider, Nierenberg said. Madoff had just said that the fraud had started in the early 1990s, but even the prosecutors disputed that claim, saying they thought it had started much earlier.

The second victim to address the court, Ronnie Sue Ambrosino, pointed out that the full extent of Madoffs crimes might never be uncovered if he was not forced to provide more information. Madoffs two sons, Mark and Andrew, and his brother, Peter, worked at the same firm too but had not been charged in the Ponzi scheme.

Judge, I believe you have the opportunity today to find out where the money is and who else is involved in this crime, Ambrosino said. And if this plea is accepted without those two pieces of information, I object to it being taken.

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