Legal Commentary

First, since the following is apropos the lure of family ties, let me begin by extending congratulations and mazel tov to co-author/co-blogger Ethan Leib and his family on the birth of a baby boy yesterday morning. Gershon: welcome to the burgeoning Prawfs family!

Second, as acknowledged yesterday, I have been an intolerably bad blogger the last few months. While still under the deluge of edits on various projects, I hope the situation will improve soon, and in the meantime, I wanted to quickly draw attention to one aspect of the Bernie Madoff scandal that's been of particular interest to me: the fact that he was turned in by his sons. There's still some question as to whether Madoff's Ponzi scheme was truly a work of solo endeavor, or whether he had to bring in others to help swindle so many of so much. Some folks might believe that the sons had to be involved also despite their involvement in facilitating the apprehension of their father. But according to a recent news account having to do with whether Madoff acted alone:

Investigators were also expected to look at the potential involvement of several Madoff relatives who worked for his firm, including his brother, two sons and others who worked for his various business entities. His wife has also come under scrutiny. To date, however, they also have not been formally accused of any wrongdoing. The law firm representing Madoff's sons, Andrew and Marc, released a statement saying they first learned of the fraud just days ago, when their father tearfully confessed, and immediately turned him in. The two are said to have worked predominantly in another division of their father's company, not in the secretive unit that handled investor money.