Bernard Madoff is reported to have made off with $50 billion or so.
That’s a lot of money.
So where is it?
Because, my friends, it’s virtually impossible to spend that amount of money as a private citizen over a 20 year period without making a really huge splash, and Bernie – despite a fairly lavish lifestyle – did not do that.
I mean, Donald Trump made headlines with his lifestyle and Madoff did not live like The Donald. Not that he didn’t live well, just not with the gaudy flash of Trump
Going to various web sites, this is what we can discover. Please keep in mind all values are estimates and should be taken with a large helping of salt.
Bernie had a Manhattan apartment valued at $7 million and a Palm Beach mansion worth $23 million, a Palm Beach condo worth around $1 million, and a Long Island home worth $3.3 million.
Bernie is half owner of an Embraer Legacy jet worth $24 million, and is also a yachtsman with a boat in the US and another that he keeps in France.
Bernie’s wife Ruth appears to have $70 million in her name.
So we have identified somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million in boats, planes and homes. And let’s say that he spent $24 million a year ($2 million a month) to live the lifestyle of the rich and famous. Over a 20 year period that would consume roughly $500 million dollars. Let’s say that it took more than that to live the lavish lifestyle. So double that and make it a round billion dollars.
That still leaves somewhere in the neighborhood of $49 billion dollars unaccounted for. Now you realize how hard it is for the super-wealthy to spend their way to poverty. It’s virtually impossible to spend all that money fast enough. The only way to lose a fortune of that size is to lose it in the stock market. And Bernie says that he didn’t invest his victim’s money.
Some of you history buff may know about the "Gold of Tolosa." The story is told of a Roman general and consul named Quintus Servilius Caepio who found a huge cache of gold hidden by a German tribe in the town of Tolosa (modern Toulouse). The find was huge, about 750,000 pounds; larger than the gold in Rome’s treasury at the time. The gold was sent back to Rome under guard, but the convoy was ambushed and the gold vanished. The general belief was that the ambush was actually staged by a band organized by Caepio himself who hid the gold. He was tried and sent into exile but his children were widely believed to have received the gold from their father on his death.
The disappearance of nearly 98% of the money that Madoff supposedly collected from his victims makes me suspect that there is more to the story than has been told. And makes me wonder why there was such a quick plea bargain, no trial, and no apparent cooperation on the part of Madoff in tracking his Gold of Tolosa.
Because, my friends, it’s virtually impossible to spend that amount of money as a private citizen over a 20 year period without making a really huge splash, and Bernie – despite a fairly lavish lifestyle – did not do that.
I mean, Donald Trump made headlines with his lifestyle and Madoff did not live like The Donald. Not that he didn’t live well, just not with the gaudy flash of Trump
Going to various web sites, this is what we can discover. Please keep in mind all values are estimates and should be taken with a large helping of salt.
Bernie had a Manhattan apartment valued at $7 million and a Palm Beach mansion worth $23 million, a Palm Beach condo worth around $1 million, and a Long Island home worth $3.3 million.
Bernie is half owner of an Embraer Legacy jet worth $24 million, and is also a yachtsman with a boat in the US and another that he keeps in France.
Bernie’s wife Ruth appears to have $70 million in her name.
So we have identified somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million in boats, planes and homes. And let’s say that he spent $24 million a year ($2 million a month) to live the lifestyle of the rich and famous. Over a 20 year period that would consume roughly $500 million dollars. Let’s say that it took more than that to live the lavish lifestyle. So double that and make it a round billion dollars.
That still leaves somewhere in the neighborhood of $49 billion dollars unaccounted for. Now you realize how hard it is for the super-wealthy to spend their way to poverty. It’s virtually impossible to spend all that money fast enough. The only way to lose a fortune of that size is to lose it in the stock market. And Bernie says that he didn’t invest his victim’s money.
Some of you history buff may know about the "Gold of Tolosa." The story is told of a Roman general and consul named Quintus Servilius Caepio who found a huge cache of gold hidden by a German tribe in the town of Tolosa (modern Toulouse). The find was huge, about 750,000 pounds; larger than the gold in Rome’s treasury at the time. The gold was sent back to Rome under guard, but the convoy was ambushed and the gold vanished. The general belief was that the ambush was actually staged by a band organized by Caepio himself who hid the gold. He was tried and sent into exile but his children were widely believed to have received the gold from their father on his death.
The disappearance of nearly 98% of the money that Madoff supposedly collected from his victims makes me suspect that there is more to the story than has been told. And makes me wonder why there was such a quick plea bargain, no trial, and no apparent cooperation on the part of Madoff in tracking his Gold of Tolosa.
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