Netflix has dropped a brand new true-crime documentary mini-series centering on Bernie Madoff, a man who earned himself the somewhat chilling nickname 'the Monster of Wall Street' - but how did he land himself with such a title?
Madoff, who was born in New York in 1938, was a successful financier and even made history by launching Nasdaq - the world’s first electronic stock exchange. You can see a trailer for Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street here:
However, despite his achievements, Madoff later turned to fraud and would go on to become better known as the mastermind behind the world’s largest Ponzi scheme, worth around $64billion.
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A Ponzi scheme is an unsustainable business model that will grind to a halt once the operator fails to attract new investors or when current investors attempt to get their money back.
Madoff claimed his scheme started in the 1990s - but there has been some speculation that it started much earlier - and he managed to attract thousands of investors who believed they were getting involved with a legitimate operation.
The fraud was eventually uncovered in 2008 and at trial in 2009, Madoff pled guilty to all charges.
He was given 150 years in prison - the maximum possible under federal sentencing guidelines - and was ordered to pay out billions in restitution.
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Madoff issued an apology after appearing in court, telling his victims: "I have left a legacy of shame, as some of my victims have pointed out, to my family and my grandchildren. This is something I will live in for the rest of my life. I'm sorry.... I know that doesn't help you."
Sentencing Judge Denny Chin commented: "Here the message must be sent that Mr. Madoff's crimes were extraordinarily evil."
And he wasn’t wrong - investors who got caught up in the scheme saw their life savings wiped out, with several people taking their own lives as a result of the loses, including former British soldier William Foxton OBE, who shot himself in a park in 2009 after losing his entire families savings; hedge fund executive Charles Murphy, who jumped from a 24 storey window after the company he worked for invested $7bn in Madoff’s scheme; and René-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet taking his own life after losing $1.5bn of his clients money in the scheme.
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Netflix’s new four-part series, Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street, directed by Joe Berlinger, features interviews with victims, whistleblowers, investigators and others closely related to the case to give an in-depth look at what exactly went on.
Speaking to the Guardian, director Berlinger said of Madoff: “At the end of the day, he’s a financial serial killer and the reason I say that is serial killers don’t have empathy.
"There’s no way you can look a widow in the eye at the Palm Beach Country Club and assure them that their life savings will be fine, give me your funds, I’ll take care of you, and then do that to people. He’s somebody who lacks empathy; therefore can’t be remorseful.”
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Madoff died in April 2021 aged 82 at the Federal Medical Center, Butner, in North Carolina.
Topics: Film and TV, Netflix, US News
Claire Reid