The Dialogues of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi Fraud

Abstract

Bernie Madoff defrauded billions of dollars from his victims. The crime of fraud and the so called sin of greed have been with us throughout known human history. Instead of looking at mere greed as the cause for fraud, this retrospective of Bernie Madoff's fraud will examine the other reasons why, despite multiple warnings and red flags, smart savvy people who had been advised otherwise, still invested with Madoff. The culture of secrecy that Madoff constructed is deconstructed and explained as creating community. As well, the first person account of an academic who specializes in mental lapses, and who invested with Madoff, is given a textual analysis and some lapses are revealed and discounted.