Everything Madoff: The Monster Of Wall Street Didn't Tell You About The True Story

Since the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme was uncovered in 2008, there have been numerous attempts at uncovering the complete story behind the headlines. Several documentaries, YouTube videos, and podcasts have discussed the topic, but Netflix seems to have released the definitive documentary about the scandal. "Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street" does an excellent job at explaining how the illegal operation worked, why so many people fell under the financial advisor's spell, and the consequences both the victims of the scam and the Madoff family suffered as a result. The story is told in such an intriguing and emotionally compelling manner that it leaves the audience wanting to know more about the case.

The documentary series manages to explore the most important aspects of the scandal. It tells the story of how Bernie Madoff became a man respected by the most important people and organizations on Wall Street, describes the way he treated his family and co-workers, and explains how close the authorities came to discovering his Ponzi scheme on multiple occasions. Having said that, there's only so much information that can be told in such a short number of episodes, leaving a lot of unanswered questions. Audiences probably want to know exactly what happened to Madoff's wife after she was evicted from her husband's seized properties, how the scandal affected various charities, sports teams, and celebrities, and the impact of Bernie Madoff's actions in popular media. Here's everything "Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street" doesn't tell you about the true story.

The Wilpon family, who owned the Mets, gave millions to Bernie Madoff. They planned to hire valuable players and enter substantial sponsorship deals all financed by profits expected to come from their investments with Madoff. Of course, these profits never materialized, and the team had to come up with new ways to pay for these deals very quickly. That money came primarily from Wilpon family funds, as well as loans. In fact, at one point the team's only trustworthy source of income became the sale of tickets and food inside the stadium. As a result, spending on different team operations had to be drastically reduced. Their payroll budget, for example, decreased by approximately $64 million in five years, gravely affecting the Mets capacity to compete with other teams. Almost half of the team had to be sold to other investors, too.

As if things couldn't get any worse, the Madoff trustee fund, which was collecting money from the earlier investors who withdrew their money with profits, sued the Mets. The fund alleged that during their relationship with Madoff, the scammer had paid some of their investments back, which is how the Mets financed some deals. Eventually, a judge ruled that the amount owed was $386 million, and the trustee settled for $162 million (via The New York Times). Still, this didn't change the fact that the team had to keep functioning with a terribly limited budget, which impacted their performance and, naturally, fan attendance for years to come.

One of the first things that caught people's attention in regard to Bernie Madoff's investors was the number of charities affected. As Reuters explained, organizations like the JEHT Foundation, which focused their efforts on the reform of the juvenile justice system, had to close because of the amount of money they put into the scheme. Others like Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation saw its income decrease considerably as its contributors were affected by the scandal. In addition, many Jewish charities suffered because of Madoff's use of his connections within the community to attract funds. But there may have been an additional reason for the number of charities that lost money to Madoff's scheme.

CNN Money has an interesting theory regarding how Madoff saw charities. These types of organizations may spend millions of dollars on management and, of course, helping people in need, but they are only required to spend a small fraction of the money they manage to collect. In fact, the law only requires charities to spend 5% of their funds per year. This means that charitable organizations usually aren't in sudden need of funds, nor are they inclined to frequently withdraw large amounts of money. This turned them into a relatively safe bet for Madoff; charities would pour millions of dollars in the scheme, but they wouldn't bother with demands of massive returns on a regular basis. As a result, the financial advisor was free to do with charity money as he saw fit, whether this meant buying a yacht or paying other older investors to maintain the appearance of a profitable business endeavor.

The documentary tells the sad end of the Madoff family. Bernie survived both his sons, one of whom died by suicide, the other from cancer. The last episode shows Bernie's wife Ruth being expelled from the expensive apartment she lived in and moving into a car. The truth is that while Ruth had to give up most of her money, she was still left with enough funds for a comfortable lifestyle, albeit a considerable downgrade from what the Ponzi scheme had allowed her at one point. She would also spend her time trying to stay out of the spotlight and denouncing his husband's scam with varying levels of success.

Ruth lived in Florida for a while, then she moved into her son's house in Greenwich, Connecticut, but she had to leave soon after his death from lymphoma. Then she moved into a gated community with different amenities in Greenwich. Interestingly, while Ruth doesn't welcome journalists and paparazzi, she did meet several times at her home with Michelle Pfeiffer, who was allowed to observe her in preparation for her role in "The Wizard of Lies." Despite her attempts at escaping her past, to this day people looking for interviews are constantly knocking on her door. On top of that, some neighbors and shop owners don't seem to be very happy with her presence, arguing that it is hard to believe she didn't have anything to do with what happened.

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ by dialing 988 or by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

The documentary ends by stating that the Madoff scandal was the biggest scam ever to take place in America. Having said that, the number of pyramid scams and Ponzi schemes seen after Madoff's arrest gave dishonest people plenty of opportunities to challenge that statement. Some of the biggest scams have taken place in the crypto space; BitConnect and Celsius were accused of being Ponzi schemes, while coins like Thodex and Anubis were allegedly part of a rug pull. But without a doubt, the biggest alleged scam was committed by FTX.

As explained in NBC News, FTX was a complex organization. On one hand, FTX was an exchange where people could buy and sell different coins. What made this exchange different is that it had its own cryptocurrency and paid higher interest than banks. The founder of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, also owned the cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research (via Tech Target). The company performed different financial activities like market making and arbitrage. That is, until a Coindesk article revealed that the company had a balance of negative $8 billion. Turns out Alameda Research lost a lot of money through risky investments and increasing debts. When this happened, FTX funds came to the rescue as if the companies were the same entity (via Time).

People have argued that FTX lost more money than Madoff, citing that the company was valued at $32 billion (via CNBC). However, this amount wasn't based on facts, but on expectations of the future of the company. In reality, FTX lost $8 billion, less than half of what people gave Madoff to invest.

The mini-series suggests that Jeffry Picower was one of the most important investors in the scheme, but that came at a price for Madoff. It's heavily implied that Picower put money in the scheme to help Madoff pay some investors, and that this came in exchange for enormous withdrawals from his investments and the promised profits. In other words, Picower was allowed to freely withdraw money and returns in exchange for rescuing the scheme when it needed it.

The New York Times estimated Jeffry Picower made roughly $7.2 billion. This amount was calculated by adding all the money Picower withdrew and subtracting the $620 million he initially gave Madoff. Picower died of a heart attack in 2009, so his widow was in charge of negotiating the settlement. In a surprise move, the widow agreed to pay all the money back. Mrs. Picower continues to insist that her husband didn't know what Madoff was doing, even though many people think that the amount of money he put in and withdrew from the scheme suggests otherwise.