If he doesn't go to jail, the Jewish people will pull a page out of the Watts handbook, circa 1965. And I might join them. Is this behavior any different, to a degree mind you, than Blankfein pulling 54 mill the last two years? You don't think the leader of the smartest guys in the room didn't see this train coming.. You don't think he pulled that bonus to get his money out of the company?
Madoff and Jeffrey Dahmer exhibited many of the same behaviors in roping in their victims. Psychologically the profile is almost the same--that of a sociopath.
No doubt he was a cold hearted bastard taking money from elderly widows and such. I'm just baffled by the Why do it in the first place. If people are willing to give you BILLIONS. The fees on that are huge. Hundreds of millions yearly. Simply duplicate the market. Maybe pick a few stocks. When funds grow that large it is hard to beat the market due do the enormous size of the funds anyway. He must have had some mental sickness.
Mandelbrotset said""The man is a complete sociopath ... he doesn't have any feelings for or caring for the people he ripped-off. Hell, he doesn't even see them as being "people" ... they are "tools", "pawns" "marks"."" Exactly. As an officer, I fought a true Psychopath once..he ripped my badge off and was trying to cut my partners throat with it before I could flip him down. Thankfully a citizen stepped into the fight and grabbed the hand with my badge in it. We had to literally hog tie him to get him in the patrol cars cage. I also have personal knowledge of a true Sociopath who's ripped off his own Mother for about $150,000.00. Every dime she had. He'll wind up in a State Prison for at least 15 years. I too do not understand these predators, and never will.
He probably wanted the easy ride and fame - and if not fame, infamy will do. There were recordings of Enron traders released that had them laughing at taking money from "grandmas" in California while they were giving them rolling blackouts. Conscience doesn't have anything to do with business. To make themselves feel better, they may do charity donations, but that is just giving grandma's money to someone else while taking a cut for themselves, and standing for their recognition and ovation from the unsuspecting (or indifferent) charity receiving the check.
Before going too deep into the sociopath thing, think about where all that money that's gone missing went. Finding the answer would shed some light on his behavior.
Oooh, I'm thinking at least somebody fooled by this sociopath has some stashed away to knock him off. He's a very good candidate if he doesn't go away for a complete witness protection program.
Madoff loved every second of it. Sociopath's subconscious believes their behavior is perfectly normal so they feel good about doing what they do.