Five years after the collapse of the biggest Ponzi scheme ever, its mastermind, Bernie Madoff, seems to be everywhere this December, like the Ghost of Christmas Past.
Yesterday the Ponzi prince said he was helping the feds take on JPMorgan for its dealings in the mad affair.
And at Foley Square, Madoff’s right-hand fraudster, Frank DiPascali, has been on the witness stand regaling jurors with tales of deception so brazen they wouldn’t make it onto “Law & Order.”
Meanwhile, on East 64th Street, the former Madoff penthouse is on the market again, this time for $17 million, or twice what the government got for the property in 2010.
The anniversary of Madoff’s undoing has also been a time to revisit the “victims” of Bernie’s diabolical deeds. By now we know the stories: Thousands of country-club millionaires who eagerly put their life savings in Madoff’s hands turned a blind eye to the red flags and enjoyed the too-good-to-be-true returns until the bottom fell out.
Now comes news that most Madoff investors (with the exception of those who invested indirectly, through feeder funds) will be getting about 75 cents on the dollar for what they invested with the crook.
While that may sound harsh, a 25 percent haircut seems a fair price to pay for putting greed over common sense.
It’s a tough message, but let’s face it: Millionaires managing their own money or paying other people handsomely to do it for them should have noticed that something was flagrantly amiss.
Not only did a graph of Madoff’s long-term returns run up at a 45-degree angle, the voluminous statements he sent to investors often included money-market and other funds that had shuttered their operations years before.
The fact that Madoff also often didn’t take a fee for his Midas-like services was also an alarm bell that even a novice investor would notice.
But with a large portion of his victims set to be made 75 percent whole despite the ordeal, five years is time enough to put it to rest. The biggest gift those who succumbed to Madoff’s madness could give this Christmas is to stop being victims and start being advocates for financial awareness in their communities.