LIFE & SLIMES OF BERNIE THE BORN HUSTLER; OLD PALS BARE HIS SCHEMING PAST

NY POST ^ | 8/9/09 | Madoff with the Money, BY JERRY OPPENHEIMER

[Liz]

Excerpted with permission of publisher John Wiley & Sons Inc "Madoff with the Money," by JERRY OPPENHEIMER.

Long before Madoff became Ponzi king, he was scamming his way through Queens and LI, tricking suburban moms into buying overpriced sprinkler systems, inflating his golf score and taking the easy way out at school.

HIS PARENTS Bernie Madoff was a born operator who always seemed to know his way around the system, even when he was a young punk growing up in Laurelton, Queens. Schoolboy Bernie was too busy thinking of ways to make money -- an endeavor impressed upon him at home by his parents, Ralph and Sylvia. "Money," maintains a longtime family friend, "was the Madoffs' aphrodisiac." There were a lot of things about the Madoffs that didn't add up. "It was always a mystery what Ralph and Sylvia Madoff did," says Bernie friend Joe Kavanau. "........it's kind of weird.....Ralph told some people he was a plumber, but no one remembers him ever doing any actual plumbing. Years later, he described himself as "a plumber in a pinstriped suit."

HIS SCHOOL YEARS Bernie wasn't much of a student, and cared little about academics. "Recalls classmate Jay Portnoy, "Bernie looked at my book. He just opened it up and said, 'Oh, yours looks boring.' I asked him why, and he said, 'It doesn't have any pictures.' " He felt it was easier to just fake his way through class. "Bernie didn't take the assignment, or school, that seriously," asserts Portnoy. --LONG READ--

[Da Coyote]

Aha. He’s a graduate of the Obama School of Slime and Corruption, eh?

Sounds like an ideal candidate for a presidential pardon followed by a top cabinet position.

[Liz]

ping

[stephenjohnbanker]

“”Bernie liked things to be done right,” observes the close friend. “He liked his home to look just right; he wanted his office to look perfect. And we used to kid around that he became compulsive about those things because his mother wouldn’t buy him Keds when he was a kid like everyone else.””

Ah, the Keds defense!! Beats all hell out of the “Twinkie defense”

[Liz]

.......and then there’s Bernie’s CYA defense.........

[org.whodat]

“”Bernie liked things to be done right,” observes the close friend. “He liked his home to look just right; he wanted his office to look perfect. And we used to kid around that he became compulsive about those things because his mother wouldn’t buy him Keds when he was a kid like everyone else.””

Wonder how he applied that to his whores??

[Liz]

Madoff’s a graduate of the Obama School of Slime and Corruption, eh? Sounds like an ideal candidate for a presidential pardon followed by a top cabinet position.

Perfect for Social Security Czar.........AFTER the pardon...........

You hafta wonder how much Obama's COS Rahm knew about Madoff since they both toiled in the cozy canyons of Wall Street....where Rahm, too, became a multi-millionaire overnight.

[stephenjohnbanker]

“Wonder how he applied that to his whores?? “

They looked “just right” too ;-)

[stephenjohnbanker]

We will never know. Rahm takes his marching orders from Soros these days.

[org.whodat]

Dang, I was hoping for some pictures.

[BradyLS]

Great article. But it set Madoff as more of a goof than a schemer. I’m trying to figure out what he did to convince people to invest with him.

[Bronzy]

.” There were a lot of things about the Madoffs that didn't add up. “It was always a mystery what Ralph and Sylvia Madoff did,”

The everyday citizen can't make a few thousand on the side without the government wanting its share. There are even laws about how many yard sales a person can have per year without paying taxes.

[seowulf]

Years later, he described himself as "a plumber in a pinstriped suit.

A plumber? Must be some kind of mob euphemism.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Wait a few weeks, out they will come ;-)

[org.whodat]

The first one of his paid girls that writes a tell all book will make a killing.

[stephenjohnbanker]

LOL....no doubt. I figure he took REAL good care of his salesmen.

[org.whodat]

Madoff installed yard water sprinklers. Before he learned to lie big and often.

[dfwgator]

“”Bernie liked things to be done right,” observes the close friend. “He liked his home to look just right; he wanted his office to look perfect. And we used to kid around that he became compulsive about those things because his mother wouldn’t buy him Keds when he was a kid like everyone else.”” Ah, the Keds defense!! Beats all hell out of the “Twinkie defense”

Mom just get me a Pepsi, please All I want is a Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to me All I wanted was a Pepsi, just one Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to me. Just a Pepsi.

[kenavi]

You hafta wonder how much Obama's COS Rahm knew about Madoff since they both toiled in the cozy canyons of Wall Street....where Rahm, too, became a multi-millionaire overnight.

"Wall Street" is a pretty big place.

[Liz]

Keep in mind that the financial and emotional epicenter of Madoff's operation was the Orthodox religious community……..of which Rahm Emanuel is an observant member.

Madoff relied on the common goals and thick mesh of Orthodox personal relations, the abundance of financial and social capital available, to pull off his massive tax evasion scam.

Orthodox institutions — Yeshiva University, the Kehilath Jeshurun synagogue, the Maimonides, Ramaz and SAR day schools, the Fifth Avenue Synagogue---collectively gave Madoff $2 billion, according to The NY Post.

Some astute observers assert it is a mistake to think these synagogues and schools are separate entities. Their leaders and members overlap like a sequence of concentric circles.......ironbound by religious praxis, social connection, and Orthodox "philanthropic" causes.

The thick mesh of Orthodox-centered personal relations, its abundance of social and financial capital — appears to have been the very trait that Madoff needed...... in collusion to pull off his scheme.

While in NY, Rahn was no doubt a member of the the Fifth Avenue Synagogue...........where tax cheat Marc Rich also worshipped.

And when Rich gave up his American citizenship and absconded to evade prosecution, his fellow Fifth Avenue Synagogue congregants used their wealth, power and prestige to get Rich the Clinton pardon.

BTW, Rahm also worked for Clinton.