Madoff Shrugged



(image via huffingtonpost)


Disgraced Ponzi-scheming shithead Bernie Madoff has been in the crosshairs of our favorite social chronicler David Patrick Columbia of NYSocialDiary for some days now. David relays a wonderful morsel that, we hope, satisfies if only slightly the appetite for schadenfreude -- and, of course justice, justice -- that lies beneath the breast of those that were taken. From NySocialDiary:

"Down at Swifty’s the lunchtime conversation was about ... one guess ... Bernie Madoff and his Made Off with Billions. The discovery is still on-going for as widely revered as he was in his world, he was unknown, or almost, to so many others ... and, it turns out, even to those who knew him.

"..He asked someone in the William Wayne shop in the ground floor of his building if he could use their access to the building’s elevators so that he could avoid the press and paparazzi waiting to ambush him. His request was refused."

To put in perspective some of the damage that Madoff has done, Columbia ran excepts from yesterday's Jewish Daily Forward. From a piece by Anthony Weiss:

".. Madoff’s collapse has gone off like an atomic blast in the midst of that world, leaving behind the wreckage of shattered lives and fortunes, and creating a gaping hole where there were once billions of dollars — and, more importantly, implicit trust.

"'He has savaged Jewish civil society for a decade,' said one philanthropic recipient, who spoke of receiving '30, 40 calls from longtime donor friends who told me about the money they lost.' The recipient spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his donors and his institution's $1.3 billion endowment. The women’s Zionist organization Hadassah lost $90 million.

"'This scandal has wiped out a generation of Jewish wealth,' said Brad Friedman, a lawyer representing a number of the victims of the alleged Madoff scam. 'Let’s not kid ourselves, this is the most philanthropic community in America.'"

More here.