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What Bernie Madoff Thinks of ABC TV Show w Richard Dreyfuss

Now that more than 5000 visitors have come running back to my blog in the past week alone--presumably all wanting to know what I think about the melodrama "Madoff" starring Richard Dreyfuss, I'll tell you.

Firstly, when I was asked to be a co-producer for this production, I insisted that Erin Arvedlund be part of the writing team, as she is the only news journalist who actually got my whole story straight--well before anyone else. The boneheads at ABC rejected my demand, and claimed "we aren't really interested in the real story, we're more interested in making a drama that would frame [me] as a major sociopath" and otherwise appeal to the larger universe of morons who channel surf between watching Donald Trump and Megyn Kelly from FOX. They said, "Bernie, this is a numbers game, nothing else. We want to make sensationalist garbage because that's what most TV viewers are addicted to.."

Ok, I get it. Particularly the part about Megyn Kelly. Who doesn't love that new slicked-back-hair-dominatrix-porn-star look that she's embraced?!  Everyone here at Camp Butt Hole does, trust me!

The fact that the ABC show runners glossed over the fact that one single investor had agreed to fork over more than $7bil within weeks after the keystone kops at DOJ learned that Picard's forensic team discovered that the investor in question received the vast bulk of the funds placed into my firm, and was also the end recipient of more than $100mil every day into his trading accounts at GoldmanSachs and JPMorgan suggests they had no interest in the real story, and that nobody really wants to remember.

People might say that I shouldn't speak poorly of the dead, but then again, there's reason to believe that Jeff Picower isn't really dead, despite news reports about his being found at the bottom of his swimming pool soon after I turned myself in. Did ABC want to include in the script that Picower's consigliere, Bill Zabel, who 'negotiated' the return of the $7bil+ on behalf of Jeff's 'estate' after his purported passing had a son who was the #2 US Attorney in the same office that led the investigation in my firm's demise. Odd crap, right? Well, even if I applaud Irv Picard for his dogged efforts during the past 8 years, and for his recovering lots of money and redistributing it, let's face it, his firm has been paid nearly $1BIL for those services by the folks at FINRA.. Oh, should I add that breaking news suggests that Irv might be blocking efforts by plaintiffs who have been going after the Picower estate--even though his issue with the estate is long over? Sort makes one think why?

(Law360, New York (February 1, 2016, 10:35 PM ET) -- A New York federal judge on Monday ordered Bernard Madoff?s liquidation trustee to show why a group of investors trying to sue one of Madoff?s former top clients can?t include the con man?s apparent assertion that the client controlled the Ponzi scheme.)

Click here to go to the elements site

Ok, now that two prime time shows are airing this week and then a few weeks later, let's refer to the majority of folks who invested in my firm as casualties, not victims. But I'm getting ahead of myself and veering off point. And so that the record is straight, despite the melodrama from TV script writers, the record shows that I turned myself in.

Yes, I turned myself in. The fact that my sons were given credit for reporting me to the FBI is simply because I wanted them to do that, so that they would not be suspected of knowing in advance about the fraud that was perpetrated. To be clear, they did not. Simply because they received out-sized sums of money in the form of non-recourse loans and 'bonuses' attributed to their role(s) at my brokerage firm--which was in decline for many years, does not make them complicit. They were kids, and not rocket scientists, and certainly not great with numbers. They, along with their cousin Shana (my compliance director at Madoff Securities), her husband Eric Swanson (who was an SEC enforcement director at that time, before his current rule as GC for BATS Global Trading) and a handful of other people enjoyed huge (as in Donald Trump-style 'huge') gifts and bonuses that any rational person could never have attributed to the performance of my securities brokerage firm. We were dying on the vine for years leading up to '08 thanks to equities markets becoming evermore electronic and more transparent.

But I digress. You want to know what I think of the ABC TV show. Given that I've had a first look at it, I'd say it's just another production that leverages dramatic license. It fails to tie in the assortment of stories of people who chose to turn a blind eye in favor of receiving returns on investment that no investment manager could deliver on a year-over-year basis, other than maybe Steve Cohen  over at Point72 could deliver. All of my biggest feeders and fund raisers were nothing more than cheap hookers. The fact that one of my biggest bundlers --who I paid millions to--now has is name on the front entrance to North Shore Hospital's "Trauma Center" is not the most ironic chapter in a book populated with phonies and country club types who duped themselves into believing they were 'special' and that investing in my fund made them privy to a top secret money-making formula that only very special were allowed in on. Puhlease..

There's nothing in the tv show script that points dead center at the big shots at the big banks and their blind eyes (.e.g JPMorgan and BNY). Nor does it spotlight the folks at those banks who actually raised red flags internally well before the events played out, or that those red flags were buried simply because I was generating millions of dollars for those banks via fees and commissions. What did I get them from? Toasters. That's right, JPMorgan sent me a new toaster every year for maintaining my account with them. No Knicks tickets, no taking me to fancy dinners.

I will say that in the parts where the narrative focuses on my love for my wife Baby Ruth, that is entirely true. Richard Dreyfuss can blow me if he wants to believe that I was insensitive to my boys and he can crawl up my butthole if he wants to think that I don't spend every day lamenting about their untimely deaths. If he still isn't convinced, so be it. As I've known for a long time, most people are basically shallow and stupid.

Bobby DeNiro's upcoming portrayal on HBO is not too bad. Not as bad as that new show Billions, which was great in the first episode, but has since sold-off dramatically. Just like the market sell-off that I predicted right here back in June of 2015. Despite  Billions being co-produced by Andrew Sorkin, a kid who I think is one of the brighter bulbs in the chandelier, the show protagonist's "Number 2" is so poorly characterized for being the second in command of a multi-billion hedge fund and his lines are so poorly written, I'm shocked that Sorkin didn't protest that actor and the lines he reads as if off a teleprompter. Even Dimes DiPascali would have been better in that role.

So instead of watching Dreyfuss, I'm going back to reading the script elements to a story that I think will be a blockbuster for the beach reading crowd, and could easily be turned into a great series.

Click here to go to the elements site

Last, everyone wants to know who I would endorse in the current presidential campaigns. Obviously not Donald Trump and obviously not Ted Cruz. I've been a Democrat for as long as I can remember and Chuck Schumer can vouch for that. Hillary Clinton is as close to being a modern day Machiavelli as anyone who I can think of and Bernie Sanders is a great lightening rod, but I don't think he's presidential material. He's too far to the left of the mainstream and even though we've elected an African American, I don't think this country is ready to elect a Jew as president. That said, if people can look past Mike Bloomberg's pedigree, and if decided to jump in at the last minute, he would likely make a fantastic Commander In Chief and CEO of the USA.

There, I've said it. Go read the book I recommended above. If you know a literary agent or a movie producer, you should point it out to them.

BLM

Full post as published by Bernard Madoff on January 30, 2016 (boomark / email).