Madoff

Erin Arvedlund, the journalist author of groundbreaking 2001 Baron's article on Bernie Madoff, once again tells a full story of the rise and spectacular fall of Bernie Madoff's $65 billion dollar Ponzi scheme.

Ten years after Bernie Madoff’s arrest, Bernie Madoff: In His Own Words presents the story of the largest financial fraud in history as told by those who were there: victims, employees, family members, FBI agents and Madoff himself. This program pairs exclusive audio recordings, rare photographs and a never-before-broadcast of Bernie Madoff’s deposition interview in prison to tell the story of Madoff’s massive $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

Erin Arvedlund, the journalist author of groundbreaking 2001 Baron's article on Bernie Madoff, once again tells a full story of the rise and spectacular fall of Bernie Madoff's $65 billion dollar Ponzi scheme.

Who is Bernie Madoff, and how did he pull off the biggest Ponzi scheme in history? These questions have fascinated people ever since the news broke about the respected New York financier who swindled his friends, relatives, and other investors out of $65 billion through a fraud that lasted for decades. Many have speculated about what might have happened or what must have happened, but no reporter has been able to get the full story - until now…

With his arrest on Dec. 11, 2008, the world first learned that Wall Street trader and former NASDAQ chairman Bernard Madoff was allegedly running the largest Ponzi scheme in history, a $50 billion scam constructed over decades. Husband and wife writing team the Strobers (Billy Graham, The Nixon Presidency) set out to discover "what sort of person could have coldly stolen from those who had entrusted him… in many instances, with their life savings?" Born in 1938, Madoff was an unmemorable student who, in his mid-twenties, got into investing with $5000. His rags-to-riches story helped him become one of the most trusted men in the financial world, delivering fantastic returns to clients like Kevin Bacon, Stephen Spielberg, the Fairfield Fund, a wide range of Jewish philanthropies, and countless other individual investors.