AN ORIGINAL MADOFF
A MADOFF ORIGINAL
My friend Harry was furious. No, that’s an understatement. He was apoplectic . . . ready to kill. The man he wanted to kill was Bernie Madoff, owner of the so-called Ponzi scheme.
“How much did he take you for”? I asked him.
“What?”
“How much did you lose?” I said.
“Lose? I didn’t lose anything.”
“I don’t get it. Then, why are you angry at him?”
He was still answering the first question. “I’ve been making over double digits a month on the money I had with Bernie Madoff, just like everybody else that gave him money to invest. That’s what we’ve all been making. He was fantastic. Who else paid investors anything close to those returns?”
“Now. I ‘m really confused.”
“About what? What could be simpler? I started 30 years ago with the Million Dollars my father left me. In five years I had reinvested most he paid out to me. I couldn’t do any better. So I had over Two Million with him.”
“Is that what you lost?”
“Hell no. By 1997 that Two Million was close to Five Million.”
“Then, what happened?”
“I withdrew took Three Million in 1998 and bought a house in Palm Beach, alongside all the other people who were his happy campers.”
“Wow, so he made you a lot of money.”
“Of course. Why the hell else would I stay with him?”
“So, how much did you lose?”
“I sold that house in the spring of 2000 for almost Five Million. It was getting on my nerves . . . all those people in Palm Beach who thought they knew Bernie better than I did. Hell, they’re all late comers.”
“Where’d you move?”
“My wife likes the west coast. We bought a home in Naples for about Three of that Five Million. We still live there.”
“I guess you lost the rest of what you had with Bernie?”
“I had a Million-Two in there at the end. I used several Million in 2004 to start a new business.”
“Harry, if he made you all that money, why you’re mad at Madoff?”
“Why am I mad?”
“Yes.”
“It’s over. That’s why I’m mad. Why didn’t he call me? I’d have told him, “Screw all those late comers. Hang in there for your old friends.”
“I guess that’s what he did?”
“What?”
“Screw the late comers.”