“It takes an extraordinarily heartless conman to swindle a survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald and Nobel Peace Prize winner out of all his charitable funds.” Wrote James Bone in the Times Online.
“Yet that is exactly what Bernard “Bernie” Madoff is alleged to have done to Elie Wiesel, the author of the Holocaust classic Night and a friend from the Jewish community in south Florida.
According to the Times Online article, “The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity now admits that it invested $15.2 million (£10.1 million) with Mr Madoff that represented “substantially all of the foundation’s assets.” The charity of the Nobel laureate, in New York, will have to raise new funds if it is to maintain its two centers in Israel that help Ethiopian Jews and Darfuri refugees and continue its other work.”
Perhaps the person who lost the most by trusting Bernie Madoff is 95 year old Carl J. Shapiro, who has been a personal friend to Madoff for nearly 50 years. In addition to losing 500 million dollars in the relationship, Shapiro at 95 is confronted with the reality that someone he thought of as “a son” did this to him.
“All I can say is that this is an awful, awful time for us,” wife Ruth Shapiro told a reporter from The New York Times.
Mr. Shapiro started his fortune making women’s clothing company Kay Windsor Inc, in 1939. He sold the business to Vanity Fair Corp in 1971; it was one of the largest clothing manufacturers in America. Mr. Shapiro was reportedly introduced to Madoff by his own his son-in-law, Robert Jaffe. Following the introduction, Mr. Shapiro invested in Madoff’s company when it launched in 1960.
Mr. Shapiro and his wife set up their charitable foundation the following year, in 1961, and over the decades have been big donors to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Brandeis University in Boston which Mr Madoff also supported through his own charitable foundation, the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital where the Carl J. and Ruth Shapiro Cardiovascular Center opened this spring.
Building work is due to start next week at Boston Medical Center on the Shapiro Ambulatory Care Center, a nine-floor, $135 million facility paid for in part with $15 million from the family foundation, according to the New York Times.
In March, the foundation pledged $27 million to DanaFarber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center in Boston. Brandeis has received $22 million from the Shapiros to build the campus centre building.
Mr. Shapiro issued a statement saying that he had been “stunned and saddened to learn about the allegations” against Madoff. He said the losses would have “an impact on our family as well as our family foundation.” and that watching the arrest of Madoff on television was “a knife in the heart.”
Bernie Madoff cheated a 95 year old man, a Holocaust survivor and many others. If you are like me, you are wondering, “What was he thinking?” Personally, I don’t find the “without conscience” explanation of this kind of behavior very satisfying. You can’t convince me that Madoff was without thoughts as he created false documents and told frank lies to people. He had to have been thinking something.
Just what was Madoff thinking? He hasn’t said yet, but I can give you an educated guess based on the seminal work of prison psychologist Glenn Walters, Ph.D. I also highly recommend that students, professionals and the public read his books, The Criminal Lifestyle and Criminal Belief Systems.
Dr. Walters began his work understanding criminal lifestyles at the same time Dr. Hare set out to define psychopathy. The lifestyle criminal that Dr. Walters describes is essentially a psychopath/sociopath. His Postulate #1 reads:
“Crime can be understood as a lifestyle characterized by a global sense of irresponsibility, self-indulgent interests, an intrusive approach to interpersonal relationships and chronic violation of social rules, laws and mores.”
Dr. Walters answers our “Just what was he thinking” question in Postulates #5 and 6:
“There is a distinctive thinking style that derives from the lifestyle criminal’s decision to engage in delinquent and criminal acts (5).
The content and process of criminologic thought are reflected in eight primary cognitive patterns (6).”
I will explain these eight patterns and you will see that although Dr. Walters studies criminality these patterns pertain to antisocial conduct in general. Note that sociopaths try to fool both themselves and others with these disordered thinking patterns.
Cognitive pattern #1 Molification: Molification refers to the thoughts sociopaths use to lay blame for their irresponsible antisocial behavior outside themselves. According to sociologists Sykes and Matza these justifications can be grouped into five major “neutralization techniques”:
1. Denial of responsibility. Sociopaths deny responsibility by claiming their behaviors are accidental or due to forces beyond their control. Perhaps Madoff was thinking “I am under pressure to deliver what people asked for.” i.e. “The investors made me do it.”
2. Denial of injury. No one got hurt, and therefore there’s no harm. “All these people are rich anyway.” Madoff reportedly did not take a client who had less than a million dollars to invest.
3. Denial of the victim. Sometimes sociopaths admit that their actions cause harm. In these cases they can justify their behavior by denying the victim. In this case Madoff was thinking “The rich deserve whatever they get.”
4. Condemnation of the condemners. Instead of focusing on their own actions, sociopaths focus on the motivations or behaviors of the people who disapprove of them. So Madoff was likely thinking “How do you think these rich people got their money anyway?” or “Everyone on Wall Street is just as corrupt as I am.”
5. Appeal to higher loyalties. Sociopaths claim that their behavior is consistent with the moral obligations to their group. Using this line of reasoning, Madoff would say, “I stole to provide for my family.”
Cognitive Pattern #2 Cut-off: Cut-off refers to the techniques sociopaths use to avoid thinking about negative consequences. They cut themselves off from any worry or guilt they might be inclined to feel. In this pattern Madoff who is 70 now was likely thinking, “I’ll be dead before they figure out what I’ve done.”
Cognitive Pattern #3 Entitlement: According to Dr. Walters most sociopaths believe that laws and social rules are necessary. “However they also believe that they are somehow personally exempt from the rules that govern the rest of us. This sense of entitlement is what provides the (sociopath) with permission to violate societal laws and the personal rights of others.” He is, after all the great, lovable, charming and exceedingly brilliant Bernie Madoff!
Cognitive Pattern #4 Power Orientation: There are those who are strong and those who are weak. The weak are prey for the taking. “If a person is stupid enough to fall for my con then he doesn’t deserve his money anyway.”
Cognitive Pattern#5 Sentimentality: Sentimentality involves an attempt by the sociopath to present himself in as favorable a light as possible. How much money did Madoff give to charity so that other people would see him as kind and generous?
Cognitive Pattern#6 Superoptimism: The sociopath’s tendency to be extremely optimistic and self-confident about not getting caught is referred to as superoptimism. According to Walters, “Experience has taught (sociopaths) that the many crimes they get away with greatly outnumber the crimes for which they have been caught.” The SEC did investigate Madoff 10 years ago as he continued his fraud. I think beating that investigation likely made him feel even more invincible.
Cognitive Pattern #7 Cognitive Indolence (laziness): According to Walters, “Like water running downhill, the (sociopath’s) thinking takes the path of least resistance.” Why should Madoff do all that investing? It’s too much like work, when you can simply take money from one guy and give it to another. It is much more fun to schmooze and play golf.
Cognitive Pattern #8 Discontinuity: The sociopath fails to follow through on commitments, carry out intentions, or remain focused on goals over time. Discontinuity is reflected by the fact that Madoff at 70 will likely spend the rest of his life in prison. Though I think so-called successful psychopaths have lives marked by less discontinuity than the unsuccessful ones.
If you have examples of sociopaths using these thinking styles to justify outrageous acts, please share them in comments. Remember since the inner world of sociopaths is relatively shallow, they are most concerned with convincing others to use these perverted thought processes to make sense of their behavior. It is relatively easy for them to convince themselves that their antisocial behavior makes sense and is fully justified.
Cognitive Pattern #7: “Why actually work when you can just take money from one person and give it to another?”
I actually wondered if the P I was involved with would RATHER avoid actually accomplishing anything — that somehow it was more “fun” for him to disrupt any real effort. That he would prefer to do something fraudulent even if it took a little more work. I don’t know if Bernie Madoff fits that profile; perhaps he wasn’t that consciously malevolent, but with the scale of this devastation, who knows?
I appreciate this different approach to understanding the sociopath. I certainly have examples of outrageous acts — I’ll think about them in this context and share in another comment.
I’m printing this post for my N/P/S/ info file! I also want to read it more thoughtfully. It’s a good summary and primer on the patterns.
This column asked a similar question about Madoff…..what makes him tick?
http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=65884
I have been thinking about the amount of low level crime that goes on among “nice” people…..people who do things that are illegal, bragging and laughing about it as though it elevates them to a special strata of society because they are smart enough to get away with it.
I’m thinking of a woman’s husband who brags about tearing up his numerous speeding tickets because he “knows the right people.” He also brags about not paying any property taxes on his very spacious elegant home (complete with hollow columns) because he “knows the right people”.
His wife used to receive an executive salary in cash to avoid paying income tax. They would brag about it and about how smart they were to outsmart everything and everybody. Are they low-level sociopaths? There was a pattern of chronic violations of rules and laws, along with the pattern of thinking that entitled them these exemptions. Superoptimisim and a sense of invincibility along with justifications such as “everybody is doing it” often accompanied their bragging.
He won’t ever get caught or be forced to do the right thing because he knows all the right people! The “right people” are dispensing favors to receive favors from another group of “right people”. The city in which all this occurs is rife with corruption and such practices are common.
I think a lot of this goes on. Maybe it’s because I’ve been on the earth a long time and I’ve seen a lot, but I think sociopaths, Ns, and Ps are more common than we would like to think. I don’t agree with the statistics commonly quoted, but that’s just my unscientific personal opinion. The sociopath who puts their spouse, friend, neighbor, relative, or employee, through hell will be the guy others know superficially or in some incidental capacity. They might see signs and patterns, but short of some violent criminal act personally involving them, they will move on to the demands of the day and dismiss it.
I think the country is in a psychological depression over the economy, and the war…Christmas seems so plastic and commercial in the face of all our national and personal issues… I am just going to try to be grateful to God for all His blessings everyday and not get sucked into the commercial bull crap…. One of the things I am very grateful for is the Lovefraud community, something so good that came out of something so EVIL in my life…
God Bless….
It’s hard to understand what Madoff is about, because this guy has been secretive for a long time. He managed other people’s money from a private floor in his building that none of the traders ever entered. The article about the Palm Beach investors talked about how hard he was to simply meet. Another article I read talks about a European analyst who advised people not to invest with Madoff because the firm would not explain how they made money.
In other words, there is no evidence of any personality characteristics, because the man seems like a ghost. We don’t even know where the money went, or how long it was going on. Everything now is speculation.
And yet he clearly created an aura around himself of high intelligence, credibility and dependability. Which seemed valid considering that he was paying investors dividends. No one knew he was making those payments with new investors’ money.
My first impression on reading this story is that he got in trouble at some point, and then just kept throwing good money after bad. Like the rogue traders that created massive losses at several European banks. Everyone’s portfolio value has nosedived in the last few years. It would not be a big surprise if his clients’ investments did too.
But then why didn’t he tell them? That’s the big question mark for me. Why try to hide the fact, when the entire market is tanking? It doesn’t make sense, and it makes me wonder if he was going senile and there was no one powerful enough in the firm to remove him.
We don’t know. And we won’t know until the SEC’s forensic accountants go through his books, and discover how long this has been going on. And where the money went.
I’m with eyeofthestorm and the opinion that there are many many more genuine “card carrying” psychopaths than we realize and there are even more that are “low level” psychopaths that cheat at any and every opportunity and seem to enjoy being crooked.
Cheating on taxes is considered a “sport” by many people I know, who will very willingly tell you how they did it and got away with it. Look at the people who took advantage of others during Hurricaine Katrina, lookk at the con artists who got the “help” money who did not deserve it. Look at the number of people who fake illnesses to get disability pensions, etc etc.
Look at the many large corporations who knowingly hire illegal aliens to work for their companies for less than they would have to pay others. I have a friend who used to work for INS and he was told that he had to stay AWAY from TYSON even though it was common knowledge in Arkansas that they hired THOUSANDS of illegal aliens. A year or so ago they did get raided by the INS and thousands of illegal aliens were deported and the company fined. What happened? Did they quit paying their bribes to which ever official was over theh INS agents?
How about in Texas where the just “locked down” all the prisons because an inmate on DEATH ROW which is supposed to be the most secure area had an inmate CALL an official on a smuggled in cell phone? The guards are corrupt and apparently easily bribed. You can get any kind of dope or a cell phone inside a prison if you have enough money. What about selling a senate seat to the highest bidder? What about the Alaskan Senator who was convicted for FAILING TO REPORT BRIBES of over a quarter of a million dollars. NOT convicted for TAKING them but for failing to REPORT them?
The moral compass of our country’s leaders seems to be way off target, and the population as well seems to be going along with it as well. They say a people get the kind of government they DESERVE and I think our country has got what we deserve, and I think it is only going to get worse not better, until there is some moral underpinning in our leaders and in the population. It is DEPRESSING, as Stormee pointed out.
Right ! So much for the Moral Majority or the Religious Rike!
khatalyst: Madoff is the firm ,.. that’s why no one was more powerful than him. What, was he to turn himself in? LOL!!!! It took the Feds going after his sons and they turned him in. Other than that, they would have gladly played the stupid part for all it was worth!
Cognitive Pattern #2 Cut-off: Cut-off refers to the techniques sociopaths use to avoid thinking about negative consequences. They cut themselves off from any worry or guilt they might be inclined to feel. In this pattern Madoff who is 70 now was likely thinking, “I’ll be dead before they figure out what I’ve done.”
My S definetly used this method. He has gotten away with hurting so many women that he never imagined that I would be the one to expose his many evil deeds and make him pay for what he did to me. He confided alot of his wrongdoings to me. I was initially very hurt and found peace in exposing all of his evil works. For example taking social security benefits from his disabled mom for his benefit and not taking care of her as agreed with social security (called adult protective services). His mother had no food, clothes, and no permanent place to stay. He just kept moving her around to keep her benefits. He never even took her to see a doctor and not only was she mentally ill (Schizophrenia) but she also had Diabetes, Hepatitis C, and was anemic.
Dear Janetf,
Has his mother been adequately cared for at this point in time? I’ve had very little luck with Adult Protective Service with abusive children as unless they SEE the child setting fire to the bed AT THE TIME THEY VISIT they won’t do a darned thing! That is a bit of a hyperbole, but not a great deal of hyperbole.
I’ve been around the financial world long and its crimes long enough that I can say one thing with certainty — there is no way in hell Bernie Madoff pulled this off by himself.
There’s a old saying in law “he who wins the race to the courthouse wins.” Any odds you want to give, I’ll cover that his sons saw what was coming down and ran as fast as they could to the SEC to cut their own deals while the cutting was good.
What do the French call it? Oh yeah, folie a familie (family madness). When all is said and done we’re going to learn the entire Madoff clan was in on it.