Bernie Madoff ran a Ponzi scheme that defrauded his investors of $50 billion dollars. It was intricate, carefully planned, and clearly intentional. So what’s going to be his defense? Insanity, of course.
According to a New York Daily News article “Bernie’s family and his attorneys may argue that, somewhere along the line, he had a mental break…They may even say he has a multiple personality disorder… Madoff’s grip on reality does show signs of slipping. The 70-year-old financier, now a prisoner of his East Side penthouse, wore a weird smile when he was photographed shortly after his Dec. 12 arrest.
He’s also said to be taking a heavy dose of anti-anxiety medication. ‘He seems really out of it,’ says a source, who believes Madoff’s family fears he’ll follow the example of Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, the Madoff client who slit his wrists last week… ‘Bernie barely speaks. His wife, Ruth, and his sons, Andrew and Mark, do most of the talking for him.’ Madoff’s lead attorney, Ira Lee Sorkin, told us: ‘I have no comment on Mr. Madoff’s defense or mental health.’ ”
If the attorney is using terms like “mental health,” an insanity defense can’t be far off. The multiple personality angle suggests that they may argue there was the “Good Bernie” who went to synagogue and the Israel Bonds dinner while “Bad Bernie” sneaked into the office late at night and transferred billions of dollars to secret off shore accounts and doctored the books so the Ponzi scheme would not be found out. The anti-anxiety medicine is either part of this new defense strategy or maybe the only truthful item since the fear of spending the rest of his life in jail must be catching up with Bernie right about now.
The Daily News article continues “Dr. Keith Ablow believes Sorkin could make a case for diminished capacity. ‘He might try to argue that Madoff suffered from dementia or a bipolar disorder,’ says the psychiatrist, who has served as an expert witness in high-profile criminal cases. ‘He could argue that Madoff committed the fraud during manic, euphoric periods and that he never found the equilibrium to correct his crime. Or that he was so delusional that he convinced himself the investment returns were real. You might also plead that he was incapacitated by some character disorder, like a malignant narcissism stemming from an early-life trauma… Insanity defenses rarely work,’ Ablow notes. ‘But if you can influence just one juror, he may stand a chance.’ ”
An insanity defense will not be easy. There were clear signs of a Ponzi scheme back in 1999 when a Wall Street analyst tried to blow the whistle on Madoff when he sent an elaborate financial analysis to the SEC which showed that the volume of investments done by Madoff couldn’t possibly account for the dividends he was paying. Unfortunately, the federal agency known as the SEC has a terrible history of being a watchdog agency. The SEC has allowed one crooked enterprise after another from Enron to Bernie Madoff to run unchecked until they fail, costing American investors billions in lost investments. Oh well, the federal government doesn’t want White people retiring early. We’re supposed to lose our investments and our retirements and keep working into our 80s to pay for the government services for all the illegal aliens.
One of the most interesting articles about the Madoff case was one that appeared a couple of weeks ago when this first blew open and Madoff was arraigned in court. The judge discussed the possibility of denying him bail because of Israel’s Law of Return which allows Jewish fugitives to stay there indefinitely, out of the reach of US law. Some Jews deny that the Law of Return allows Jewish embezzlers and thieves to escape to Israel with their loot. If that were true, then why did this judge want to deny bail? One wonders how many Jewish swindlers have fled to Israel. Mark Rich, the biggest tax cheat in US history, fled to Israel and stayed there free from extradition until he got a pardon from Bill Clinton.
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