The Club No One Wanted To Join-Madoff Victims In Their Own Words
Twenty-nine Madoff victims have banded together to tell their stories. Their book is appropriately entitled: The Club No Wanted to Join—Madoff Victims in Their Own Words.
My copy has not shipped yet. So I have not seen the insides. But I look forward to exploring what the authors say. The Madoff victims are real people with observations about 1) the fraud and 2) the system charged with cleaning up the mess.
In particular I look forward to reading commentary about Irving Picard, the trustee. I have criticized Picard’s relationship with SIPC. It’s too cozy if you ask me. And my suspicion is that the Madoff victims will give us the inside skinny on their interaction—good, bad, or ugly.
Here’s what Helen Davis Chaitman writes in her book review, posted on Amazon:
Irving Picard, the SIPC trustee, who has a fiduciary duty to the investors, decided to sell his soul to SIPC for $1.4 million/week.
One last thing to whet your appetite for The Club No One Wanted to Join. Last May I published the recipe for Spaghetti alla Madoff. Here it is in its abridged form:
- 1 part promise and 12 percent earnings, year in, year out
- 3 vats of baloney
- plenty of pork
- a yacht named “Bull,” and other accouterments of great wealth alla marinara (Italian phrase meaning “sailor-style”)
- 4 or 5 cups of feeder funds
- oodles of noodles, and
- a dash of 950 percent returns
Directions
In a large broker-dealer, mix all ingredients and simmer for thirty years or so. Stir slowly, drink fine red wine, and deliver the tangled plate to Irving Picard when the recipe sours from a bad economy. Let him figure out who eats what.
The New York Times describes my novels as “money porn,” “a red-hot franchise,” and “glittery thrillers about fiscal malfeasance.” Through fiction I explore the dark side of money and the motivations of those who have it, want more, and will steamroll anybody who gets in their way.