Unless you have lived in a remote village in Tibet, been in a coma, or like "Dancing with the Stars" et.al., you know the name Bernie Madoff. He was convicted of running the largest Ponzi Scheme not sponsored by a government ever. He was turned in by his two sons, who worked for him, but claim they had no involvement. Now, one of Bernie's sons, two years after Bernie's arrest, was found dead, an apparent suicide.
The whole Madoff story is a spectacular example of pyrrhic justice. Bernie began his scheme many years ago. Those early investors received regular dividend payments as they hoped they would. Everything was going fine until the two sons turned Bernie in. Once the government shut down the operation, all of Bernie's investors lost their money. Ironically, they were better off being scammed by Bernie than being protected by the government. Of course, at some point, the scheme would have to collapse, as all Ponzi schemes do, but for now all was well and good.
Another story in the news this week centered on the "justice" of the government, as they went after Carl and Ruth Shapiro, early investors with Bernie Madoff. The Shapiros first invested in 1961, and the government estimates that they earned $1 BILLION dollars with Bernie's company. In a strange perversion of justice, the government sued the Shapiros for the $1 Billion they had collected as dividends from their investments. In other words, the government sued a victim of the crime to repay other victims of the same crime. Oh, you don't think the Shapiros were victims? This article will show otherwise. What makes this even worse is that the Shapiros are HUGE philanthropists in the Boston area. You cannot find a hospital, museum, or other humanitarian building or organization that doesn't count the Shapiros among its benefactors. Upon the arrest of Mr. Madoff, the Shapiros reluctantly notified the community that no new philanthropic efforts could be made. It is a massive blow to the community, and there are many people whose lives will have less quality because of the losses incurred by the shutdown of Madoff's operation.
Bernie Madoff committed a crime. That's indisputable. The abrupt shutdown of that operation cost many people money. Many others lost the philanthropic efforts of the Shapiros. And Mark Madoff, one of the people who turned in his own father, has lost his life. Is the acquisition of all that money really worth the human costs? The Shapiros used their gains for the benefit of others...Bernie Madoff was just plain greedy. But I do have to wonder about something...was it really necessary to for all these people to lose everything?
I feel that something could have been done differently, I'm just not sure what. I have ideas, but thinking through the execution of them points out numerous flaws. And the more I think about all those people whose lives have been detrimentally affected, the worse I feel. Maybe that's why Mark Madoff committed suicide...just imagine the emotional strain he has lived with for two years, and all because he tried to do something right. And that, in itself, is a whole new level of tragic.
Maybe my poverty is a blessing after all.
Take care, my friends.
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