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WHO is BERNIE?

I find it odd that Bernard Madoff, the arch rip-off artist of all time, seems so generous when it comes to honoring his debt to Lady Justice. It is a dichotomy that bears examining. In his final statement before sentencing, seemingly Madoff admits to everything with which he is charged. He even apologizes to those he might have wronged. That seems so inconsistent for a person who, over twenty years, is alleged to have constantly, systematically and coldheartedly extracted over 65 billion dollars from an assortment of family, friends, associates, trusts, pensions and charities—under the most cynical circumstances of supposed investments. Some of these people and institutions have been left in complete ruin. There are reports of suicides. Through it all, at least on the surface, Bernie Madoff has maintained a curious appearance of psychological equanimity and detachment from it all.

Could it be that Mr. Madoff, in this obvious display of gross psychopathy, morally and legally may not be culpable of the economic calamity he has brought about. In a puerile, cookie-jar scenario, he explains that, at first, it was just one cookie; then another, until he felt compelled to eat the whole jar. That is, the scheme was working OK until a down-market gummed up the works. Then, he was obliged to continue raking in suckers in order to pay off those greedy bastards who kept calling in their chips.

He asserts that he knew the bubble had to burst one day, and that he would be required to pay the piper. We ask ourselves, then:

If Peter knew he’d pay the piper,
And he, in turn, become a pauper,
Why then was Peter such a piker,
And not become an off-shore lifer?

It seems only reasonable that a conscientious, dyed-in-the-wool criminal, with that kind of gelt flowing between his fingers, and knowing that someday the axe was going to fall, naturally would use that same criminal acumen to set up a non-extraditable nest somewhere. But, Bernie did naught but hang about, completely vulnerable to prosecution, until the axe finally did fall. This does not compute; it does not jibe; it is a faux dénouement.

In the end, Bernie Madoff did not plead “not guilty;” he did not—as was expected—opt for a plea bargain. He threw himself upon the mercy of an unforgiving system that he could have fought to the bitter end. Why, then, did he simply place his head on the executioner’s block? Is he Socrates? Is he Joan of Arc? Is he Lizzie Borden? In the weird machinations of the mind, he could be any of them--or all of them.

Who is Bernie Madoff? – Who knows?