The Madoff Chronicles

Inside the Secret World of Bernie and Ruth

By: Brian Ross

Narrated by: Jeff Cummings

Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

The collapse of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme led to the instant evaporation of $65 billion of wealth. The effects of Madoff's brazen fraud were felt most closely in New York and Palm Beach but the story was, and continues to be, front page news across the country.

Now, a paperback version of the book is perfectly timed with the ABC drama starring Richard Dreyfuss. Brian Ross and his team of investigators shed an unyielding light onto Madoff's scheme - how he got started, how he succeeded for so long, who helped him, and who shielded him from early investigations. From hard-hitting revelations to fascinating anecdotes, this is an incisive and voyeuristic look into this first family of financial crime.

This is both news and the most addictive kind of true crime reading, certain to appeal to both Madoff junkies and neophytes who will love a juicy story filled with intrigue, betrayal, and billions and billions of dollars.

Hear key details of how Madoff carried out his scam and the revelation that he began the fraud from almost the first day, in the 1960s. Hear how investigators believe that a billion dollars or more may have been hidden by Madoff. Learn what was going on inside the Madoff apartment as Bernie prepared for his life in prison and Ruth prepared for life in self-imposed confinement.

The Madoff Chronicles includes a vast array of news and material that listeners won't find anywhere else:

• Extensive cooperation by Madoff's personal assistant, Eleanor Squillari.
• Extensive cooperation by Little Rick - a former employee who used to fetch drugs for the Madoffs. Little Rick knows all their dirty secrets. We learn that Bernie also liked prostitutes. He kept his favorites' names and numbers in his Little Black Book.
• Detailed chronicle of Madoff's conversations and movement inside and outside the office in the days before his arrest.
• Contains incriminating connections between Madoff and certain members of the SEC.
• Cooperation of childhood friends and neighbors has enabled Ross to write a compelling portrait of Bernie and Ruth in their early years.

©2015 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Excellent

Well written, unbelievable of the incompetence of the SEC and discounted warnings to the SEC

Well-told story of a splendid sociopath

Bernie threw out all the record books and made a new one. I have never seen or imagined a person so slickly fit into the delusional susceptibilities of the social environment, so perfect in playing a part that was -- so revered and so utterly fake! It is the ultimate nihilist performance art. And, Bernie watchers (a fave alongside Enron for me), it is worthwhile to take the tack here: to hear the people who saw him in is incidental daily life (alongside his family). This is Bernie doing life, live. It is a sort of caricature, an extended musing on the vapidity possible for the ultra-rich Manhattanites of our day. Rarified castles in the sky, villas in France, perks flying around for all, completely insane, completely virulent, clueless regulators blithely wandering around, and when the whole thing pops, lives in all directions ruined (and not a little of their own wealth fantasies glinting but dying in their eyes, which he played on so -- easily) the guy just quietly walks off the stage, a slight, bland smirk on his face. Nobody could make this up. Oh, and the narrator is a little too TV-flashy-gee-whiz for me. I don't need hyperactive vocal chords over-amping a story.

It would have been awesome if there was more...

It would have been awesome if there was more story from Madoff's perspective but I can imagine he's not really in a talking mood. Still good though.

BUY NO ONE WOULD LISTEN INSTEAD, IS FAR SUPERIOR

Any additional comments?

It is a bit like someone has researched this from the internet & not gone into the background & the real details of this stunning story. In fact they seemed to have cobbled this together by reviewing interviews & alike. It is OK but there is a much better book on the subject, written by the guy who spent years trying to expose Madoff. That book is called No One Would Listen & is far superior in every way. That book really does expose the stupidity of the government agencies & the lack of oversight by the banks & alike.

This was excellent in every word

I can't wait for the movie. The story today about as much of the story as I was interested in. It read like true crime, which it is.