Word: madoff
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...Madoff, Bernard •mistress of reveals - "This man was not well-endowed" - that penis of is "very small...
...other hand, Jerry Oppenheimer's Madoff with the Money (Wiley) reflects its tabloid title. Told with faux breathlessness, it reads at times like a quickly compiled clip job. On occasion, he uses the annoying supermarket-rag technique of quoting "Madoff insiders" for banal details, such as that Madoff liked expensive suits, in order to raise the level of suspense. But Oppenheimer can be good at the juicy quote too. One victim told him, "What were we going to do--call up Bernie and tell him, 'God, I'm making too much money. What's going on?'" Or the small detail...
Andrew Kirtzman's Betrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff (Harper) offers the biggest payoff of the three books. It's a perfect meld of business details and personalities, including the still unresolved role played by Madoff's wife and sons in the scam. The author is more interested than Arvedlund in Madoff the man and in the emotional aspect of this financial soap opera. He has perfect pitch when it comes to the agony and shame of the Jewish community for finding such a gonif (Yiddish for thief) in its midst...
Mournfully, Kirtzman tells the story of Harry Markopolos, a flawed whistle-blower who tracked Madoff's misdeeds for almost a decade. An eccentric math genius, Markopolos waved his findings in the face of the SEC--he gave them a pointed memo in 2005 that was titled "The World's Largest Hedge Fund Is a Fraud," but also made it clear that he wanted a reward for his efforts. Maybe the SEC should have paid him--it could have saved billions...
Kirtzman, for one, believes Madoff was bad from the beginning and scammed for so long that immorality became a way of life for him. But the curse to Madoff's victims is that he was a superlative actor, right up until his sentencing. "Standing there in his old, expensive suit, you could still see in him the discerning old wise man, reluctantly agreeing to take one more person's money," Kirtzman writes. Readers of these three accounts will fare better than those Madoff swindled. The books are $25 each, but you at least get a decent return for the investment...