The Believers: How America Fell for Bernard Madoff's $65 Billion Investment Scam

Opening up the clubbish world where financier Bernard Madoff operated, this book details the scandal that rocked the financial trust of Americans. It was in luxurious Palm Beach, by the manicured lawns and Olympic-sized swimming pool, that Madoff ravaged the world of philanthropy and high society he strove so hard to join; vaporizing the assets of charities, foundations, and individuals that had trusted him with their funds. It seems nothing was sacrosanct to Madoff, possibly the greatest con-man in history?even Elie Wiesel's foundation lost tens of millions. It all prompted the unsettling questions How could Madoff, a pillar of the Jewish community, do this to a Nobel Laureate and Auschwitz survivor? and How could some of the most sophisticated and worldly people in America fall victim to a collective delusion for years? Tracing the links from Palm Beach and the Hamptons to the clubs of Manhattan society, the book details the network of relationships across which flowed hundreds of millions of dollars, and shows how despite material success and acclaim, some human impulses remain eternal. It reveals how an underlying sense of insecurity still shapes some of the richest and most successful individuals in America, making them crave ever more status and peer acclaim.