One year after his arrest, it seems that Bernard Madoff has got himself a nice little gig in jail. The Wall Street Journal reports that Madoff who has been behind bars now for more than five months has reinvented himself as the “Godfather” or “The Don”. The WSJ notes: “Inmate No. 61727-054 shares an unlocked cell at the medium-security prison at Butner Federal Correctional Complex with a younger man named Frank. He wears khaki prison garb and has been spotted walking on an outdoor track. He plays bocce, chess and checkers. He scrubs pots and pans in the prison kitchen. The 71-year-old Mr. Madoff also is salvaging something that disappeared in the outside world the moment his fraud was exposed: respect.”
But on the outside, his legacy lives on. First, the charities are still counting the losses. Associated Press reports that the damage caused to charities, especially Jewish nonprofits and those that aided Israel, is still being evaluated. Foundations and charitable trusts appear to have lost a lot of money because of Madoff, who was active in the Jewish community and knew the heads of many of the organizations that invested with him.
Then his family is finding it hard to adjust. The Wall Street Journal reports that his sons Mark and Andrew can’t work in the financial services sector, even though they turned him in. They’re lucky they haven’t been charged. And certainly it seems his wife Ruth Madoff will not be charged because she wasn’t directly involved in the business.
With a Ponzi scheme worth $19 billion, his legacy will continue long after his death.
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