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How do you know that Madoff was malicious from the outset, I wonder? The guy had a 30 year career, have you studied his beginnings? Maybe you did, but knowing nothing I'd find it more plausible that the guy started small fudging a couple of numbers hoping the next year would be better and eventually snowballed out of control.

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My somewhat cursory read of Madoff was that he tarbabied himself. He had been running a successful investment company, but hit losses.

The good, and lawful, thing to do would have been to come clean at that point. He didn't, and his downfall began there.

Instead he did the bad, and illegal, thing: doubled down and paid off the small number of exiting investors with new investor's deposits, whilst lying about returns.

If you've read John Kenneth Galbraith's The Great Crash: 1929 (a short and highly readable account), you'll find a very familar story in Madoff. He fell prey to what JKG calls "the bezzle".

He was not always a scammer. He ran a top market making business in his early days and served as chairman of nasdaq etc.

That gave him the clout he needed. Then he used that clout to scam wealthy people starting in the 90's.

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