Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street

Last updated
Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street
Madoff (2023 documentary series).png
Netflix documentary series poster
Genre
Based onMadoff Talks
by Jim Campbell
Developed byTeresa Giordano
Story by
  • Andrew Becker
  • Eleanor Yu
Directed by Joe Berlinger
Starring
  • Elijah George
  • Joseph Scotto
  • Donna Pastorello
  • Sarah Kuklis
  • Isa Camyar
  • Cris Colicchio
Music by Serj Tankian
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes4
Production
Executive producers
  • Joe Berlinger
  • Jon Doran
  • Samantha Grogin
  • Jen Isaacson
  • Jon Kamen
  • Eve Rodrick
Producers
  • Peter Bobrow
  • Axel Gerdau
  • Mika Lentz
  • Rachael Profiloski
CinematographyJeff Hutchens
Editors
  • Christopher Kronus
  • Josh Pearson
  • Victoria Toth
  • Timothy Ziegler
Camera setup Multi-camera
Running time249 minutes (entire series)
Production companies
Original release
Network Netflix
ReleaseJanuary 4, 2023 (2023-01-04)

Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street is a 2023 American true crime documentary series directed by Joe Berlinger and based in part on the 2021 book Madoff Talks by Jim Campbell. The four-part series was produced by RadicalMedia in association with Third Eye Motion Picture Company for the streaming service Netflix and released in its entirety on January 4, 2023. It details how Bernie Madoff rose to power and, using former employees, investigators, journalists, victims, whistleblowers, and Madoff video depositions, unpacks the world's biggest Ponzi scheme while also laying blame on the many who saw an abundance of red flags but decided to shrug them off and look the other way.

Contents

Backstory

While discussing the documentary series in an interview with journalist Hari Sreenivasan on the American global affairs television program Amanpour & Company , Berlinger stated, "[W]hat I really wanted to emphasize is the utter failure of the regulators." When asked about the never-before-seen footage of Madoff, he explained that it was graciously offered to him during an interview he did with attorney Helen Chaitman, who had deposed Madoff while representing many of the victims in clawback lawsuits. [1]

Plot summaries

A Liar, Not a Failure

The documentary series begins with Madoff's arrest and a historical context of his early life, including what led to his absolute determination not to be a failure like his father. It discusses how he began his career in penny stock trades and built a profitable side business that provided clients with impressive returns. With his brother Peter, they were able to pioneer computerized trading and the consolidation of off-the-exchange markets which eventually led to the formation of NASDAQ for which he would be on the Board of Governors.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

In the second episode, we see the stark differences between the modern and pristine operation on the 19th floor of the Lipstick Building and what was transpiring on the relic and shopworn 17th floor, where Madoff was running his investment advisory business and where most of the fraud was orchestrated, and from where Madoff's empire branched into the hedge fund business, which began drawing unwanted scrutiny.

In his disposition, Madoff confirms the names of four significant investors, including Jeffry Picower, a shadowy and long-time client, dating back 30 years. Although Madoff never confronted Picower or discussed the matter with him, it was suspected he knew what was going on and, because of this, had the power to torment and extort Madoff while profiting substantially from his Ponzi scheme.

See No Evil

In the third episode, the focus shifts on how Madoff's numbers were unrealistic, and despite his competitors alerting the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency, enamored by Madoff's reputation, chose to ignore all the red flags, preferring instead to look the other way and allow Madoff to continue.

The Price of Trust

In the final episode, we hear how employees on the 17th floor were rewarded, and we see Madoff's $65 billion Ponzi scheme quickly collapses as investors begin to withdraw their money during the 2007–2008 financial crisis. We see how Madoff's sons attempt to stop their father from writing bonus cheques for long-time investors, faithful employees, and extended family to help cushion the blow. Madoff confesses to the Ponzi scheme, and the FBI arrests him.

After pleading guilty, Madoff is sentenced to 150 years in prison. Two years after learning of the Ponzi scheme, his eldest son Mark is found hanging from a pipe, dead of an apparent suicide. His other son dies of lymphoma six years later.

Cast

Production

Shooting for the series was done on stage rather than in traditional office space, which provided the crew with the means to more easily control the set when transitioning between scenes filmed in daylight and those created at night, all while using continuous shots. Interviews with some of Madoff's victims were done off-set in actual locations. During the 30 to 40 days of shooting spread over a few months, crew sizes varied from four to one hundred depending on the stage of production. [2]

Netflix announced the series in October 2021 and that it would be made by filmmaker Joe Berlinger and would include access to "victims, whistleblowers, investigators, and archives," and that some of it would be based on Jim Campbell's 2021 book Madoff Talks: Uncovering the Untold Story Behind the Most Notorious Ponzi Scheme in History. [3] Berlinger would later reveal that the series would include footage of Madoff's video depositions. [4]

Release

The four-part series, Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street, began streaming in its entirety on Netflix on January 4, 2023. [5]

The soundtrack was released a week in advance by composer Serj Tankian. The album, entitled Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street (Soundtrack from the Netflix Series), includes 27 musical compositions from the series and was made available to stream on all major digital music platforms. [6]

Reception

Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street was generally well received. In The Wall Street Journal , John Anderson writes, "Among Mr. Berlinger's accomplishments in The Monster of Wall Street is not making the Madoff story remotely romantic, or even a parable, while at the same time putting blood in its veins." [7] Brian Tallerico, editor of RogerEbert.com posts, "It's not as flashy as his serial killer exposes, but it does take a very complex issue and unpack it in a way that's easy to follow." [8] In The Guardian , critic Chitra Ramaswamy includes, "Joe Berlinger's pacy four-parter treats the jaw-dropping story as a financial thriller, which makes sense." [9] Nick Schager, entertainment critic for The Daily Beast , finds that "the docuseries is a stinting evisceration of a man and a culture that cared more about dollar signs than rules, ethics, or even loved ones." [10]

On the Netflix Top 10 Most Viewed list, the series premiered at number two [2] and was listed in the Top 10 in TV in twenty countries in the first week of 2023. [11] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 90% of 10 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.90/10. [12] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 74 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clawback</span> Mandatory return of money or benefits

The term clawback or claw back refers to any money or benefits that have been given out, but are required to be returned due to special circumstances or events, such as the monies having been received as the result of a financial crime, or where there is a clawback provision in the executive compensation contract.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Israel III</span> American fraudster and hedge fund manager

Samuel Israel III is an American fraudster and former hedge fund manager for the Bayou Hedge Fund Group, which he founded in 1996. In 2008, Israel was sentenced to 20 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $300 million for defrauding his investors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernie Madoff</span> American fraudster and financier (1938–2021)

Bernard Lawrence Madoff was an American financial criminal and financier who was the admitted mastermind of the largest known Ponzi scheme in history, worth an estimated $65 billion. He was at one time chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange. Madoff's firm had two basic units: a stock brokerage and an asset management business; the Ponzi scheme was centered in the asset management business.

Andrew Madoff was an American financier, best known for exposing alongside his brother the financial crimes of his father, Bernie Madoff, whose Ponzi scheme has been widely described as the most successful in history.

Harry M. Markopolos is an American former securities industry executive and a forensic accounting and financial fraud investigator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet</span> French businessman (1943–2008)

René-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet was a French aristocrat, money manager, and businessman. He was one of the founders of Access International Advisors, a company caught and subsumed in the Madoff investment scandal in 2008. He died by suicide after losing an estimated $1.4 billion in Madoff's scheme.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madoff investment scandal</span> Investment scandal discovered in 2008

The Madoff investment scandal was a major case of stock and securities fraud discovered in late 2008. In December of that year, Bernie Madoff, the former Nasdaq chairman and founder of the Wall Street firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, admitted that the wealth management arm of his business was an elaborate multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Participants in the Madoff investment scandal</span>

Participants in the Madoff investment scandal included employees of Bernard Madoff's investment firm with specific knowledge of the Ponzi scheme, a three-person accounting firm that assembled his reports, and a network of feeder funds that invested their clients' money with Madoff while collecting significant fees. Madoff avoided most direct financial scrutiny by accepting investments only through these feeder funds, while obtaining false auditing statements for his firm. The liquidation trustee of Madoff's firm has implicated managers of the feeder funds for ignoring signs of Madoff's deception.

The recovery of funds from the Madoff investment scandal has been underway since the scandal broke in December 2008. That month, recovery trustee Irving Picard received funds from the Bank of New York account where Bernard Madoff held new investments into his Ponzi scheme. As it has been concluded that no legitimate investments were made on the investors' behalf for at least the last 12 years of operation, recovery has proceeded on a "money in/money out" basis. Investors are entitled to receive no more than the nominal cash amounts that they paid in and did not subsequently withdraw, without regard to inflation, interest, opportunity cost or the false statements that Madoff provided them. Those statements combined to a total balance of approximately $64 billion, while the admitted claims amount to $19.5 billion. As of March 2024, the trustee had recovered $14.7 billion toward these claims through legal action against Madoff associates, feeder funds and beneficiaries of the scheme, and had made fifteen distributions to investors. Action by the Department of Justice has recovered an additional $4 billion.

Irving H. Picard is a partner in the law firm BakerHostetler. He is known for his recovery of funds from the Madoff investment scandal from investors, Bernie Madoff and his family, and their spouses and estates. Throughout the case, Picard's law firm was paid approximately $1 billion.

Jeffry M. Picower was an American investor involved in the Madoff investment scandal. He was the largest beneficiary of Madoff's Ponzi scheme, and his widow agreed to have his estate settle the claims against it by Madoff trustee Irving Picard for $7.2 billion, the largest single forfeiture in American judicial history.

<i>No One Would Listen</i> Book by Harry Markopolos

No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller is a book by whistleblower Harry Markopolos about his investigation into the Madoff investment scandal and how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission failed to react to his warnings. The book was released on March 2, 2010, by John Wiley & Sons.

<i>Chasing Madoff</i> 2010 documentary film directed by Jeff Prosserman

Chasing Madoff is a 2010 documentary film written and directed by Jeff Prosserman. The film is based on the book by Harry Markopolos. It was first released at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam on 19 November 2010. It was first shown in North America on 26 August 2011.

Saul Katz is a real estate developer, former president of the New York Mets and accused Bernie Madoff co-conspirator.

Access International Advisors and Marketers, a Securities and Exchange Commission-registered investment advisor and a hedge fund of funds, was a research analyst investment agency that specialized in managing hedged and structured investment portfolios that involve commercial physical and biological research. It was a feeder fund into the securities firm of Bernie Madoff, as part of the Madoff investment scandal.

Shana Diane Madoff, sometimes referred to as Shana Madoff Skoller Swanson, is an American former attorney who is now a yoga teacher.

Eric J. Swanson is an American lawyer who worked at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and dated and eventually married the niece of Bernard Madoff while the SEC was investigating Madoff's investment firm for what was eventually revealed to be a massive Ponzi scheme. Swanson is currently the Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary of BATS Global Markets, the third-largest stock exchange in the United States.

<i>Madoff</i> (miniseries) 2016 American miniseries

Madoff is a 2016 American television miniseries written by Ben Robbins, inspired by Brian Ross' book The Madoff Chronicles, about the Madoff investment scandal. The Madoff investment scandal was a fraud scheme perpetrated by Bernie Madoff, a former stockbroker, investment advisor, and financier. He is the former non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market and the admitted operator of a Ponzi scheme that is considered the largest financial fraud in U.S. history. The miniseries aired over two nights, February 3 and 4, 2016, on ABC.

<i>The Wizard of Lies</i> 2017 Bernie Madoff biopic Barry Levinson

The Wizard of Lies is a 2017 American television biopic film directed by Barry Levinson and written by Sam Levinson, Sam Baum, and John Burnham Schwartz, based on the 2011 non-fiction book of the same name by Diana B. Henriques. The film stars Robert De Niro as businessman and fraudster Bernie Madoff, Michelle Pfeiffer as his wife Ruth Madoff, and Alessandro Nivola as their older son Mark Madoff. It aired on HBO on May 20, 2017. This is the fourth film featuring De Niro and Pfeiffer, following Stardust (2007), New Year's Eve (2011) and The Family (2013), as well as their first collaboration for television.

References

  1. ↑ "Transcripts:Amanpour". cnn.com . Archived from the original on 2023-02-05. Retrieved 2023-02-03.
  2. 1 2 Allard, Matthew (2023-01-19). "'MADOFF: The Monster of Wall Street' with DP Jeff Hutchens". Newsshooter. Archived from the original on 2023-01-20. Retrieved 2023-02-03.
  3. ↑ Maas, Jennifer (2021-10-26). "Bernie Madoff Docuseries Ordered at Netflix". The Wrap . Archived from the original on 2022-04-01. Retrieved 2023-02-03.
  4. ↑ Kreps, Daniel (2022-12-08). "Bernie Madoff's Historic Ponzi Scheme Focus of Upcoming Netflix Docuseries". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2022-12-14. Retrieved 2023-02-03.
  5. ↑ Mitchell, Alex (2023-01-03). "Netflix docuseries 'Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street' out Wednesday". The New Yorker . Archived from the original on 2023-01-24. Retrieved 2023-02-03.
  6. ↑ Kennelty, Greg (2023-01-02). "SERJ TANKIAN Streams Madoff: The Monster Of Wall Street Soundtrack". Metal Injection. Archived from the original on 2023-01-06. Retrieved 2023-02-03.
  7. ↑ Anderson, John (2023-01-03). "'Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street' Review: Ponzi Scheme of a Sociopath" . The Wall Street Journal . Archived from the original on 2023-02-03. Retrieved 2023-02-03.
  8. ↑ Tallerico, Brian (2023-01-03). "Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street movie review". rogerebert.com . Archived from the original on 2023-01-16. Retrieved 2023-02-03.
  9. ↑ Ramaswamy, Chitra (2023-01-04). "Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street review – grubby and jaw-dropping from start to finish". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 2023-02-05. Retrieved 2023-02-03.
  10. ↑ Schager, Nick (2023-01-04). "Netflix's 'Monster of Wall Street' Is a Total Evisceration of Bernie Madoff". The Daily Beast . Archived from the original on 2023-01-27. Retrieved 2023-02-03.
  11. ↑ "Netflix Top 10 - Global". Netflix . 2023-01-08. Archived from the original on 2023-01-14. Retrieved 2023-02-04.
  12. ↑ "Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved 2023-02-03.
  13. ↑ "Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street". Metacritic . Fandom, Inc. Retrieved 2023-02-03.
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