MADOFF

From investigative journalist Richard Behar, Madoff: The Last Word brings us inside the secret crimes and dramatic downfall of Bernie Madoff, mastermind of the largest Ponzi scheme in history.

The product of fifteen years of reporting by investigative journalist Richard Behar, Madoff: The Last Word uncovers the story of the infamous criminal behind the largest Ponzi scheme and the longest-running fraud in history. Thousands of people lost $65 billion to Bernie Madoff's fraud. Two people who suffered substantial losses committed suicide. Behar reveals that his theft actually began in the early 1960s - far earlier than Madoff claimed. How did his crimes go undetected for so long? Why did he start and how did his greed grow so large? Behar unveils the full extent of Madoff's fraud for the first time. By the time Madoff died in 2021, he had sent Behar more than 300 emails and dozens of hand-written letters. They had roughly 50 (taped) phone conversations, and three in-person prison visits. Over those years, Behar conducted interviews with regulators, prosecutors, investors, Wall Street experts, and former Madoff employees, plus thousands of documents, many of them confidential. A must-read for audiences who flocked to books like Bad Blood and Empire of Pain, Madoff brings us inside the ruse that fooled credulous investors, prominent hedge funds and money managers, regulators, and SEC investigators. Richard Behar is the Contributing Editor of Investigations for Forbes magazine, and an Associate Producer and narrator of Bandits and Grifters - a six-part Netflix hit documentary about the Russian mafia (2024). He previously worked on the staffs of Fortune, Time, and Forbes, and carried out probes for Fast Company, CNN, and BBC. In 1998, he conducted the only prison interview of Dennis Helliwell, who ran the longest-known Ponzi scheme prior to Madoff's. In 2005, Behar launched Project Klebnikov, a global media alliance committed to shedding light on the Moscow murder of his friend and colleague, Forbes editor Paul Klebnikov. Over a four-decade career, Behar has garnered more than 20 journalism awards. He tunes out financial scams by collecting old coins and smacking baseballs at batting ranges.