The inside story of Bernie Madoff and his $65 billion Ponzi scheme, with surprising and shocking new details from Madoff himself.
Who is Bernie Madoff, and how did he pull off the biggest Ponzi scheme in history?
These questions have fascinated people ever since the news broke about the respected New York financier who swindled his friends, relatives, and other investors out of $65 billion through a fraud that lasted for decades. Many have speculated about what might have happened or what must have happened, but no reporter has been able to get the full story — until now.
In The Wizard of Lies, Diana B. Henriques of The New York Times— who has led the paper’s coverage of the Madoff scandal since the day the story broke — has written the definitive book on the man and his scheme, drawing on unprecedented access and more than 100 interviews with people at all levels and on all sides of the crime, including Madoff’s first interviews for publication since his arrest. Henriques also provides vivid details from the various lawsuits, government investigations, and court filings that will explode the myths that have come to surround the story.
A true-life financial thriller, The Wizard of Lies contrasts Madoff’s remarkable rise on Wall Street, where he became one of the country’s most trusted and respected traders, with dramatic scenes from his accelerating slide toward self-destruction. It is also the most complete account of the heartbreaking personal disasters and landmark legal battles triggered by Madoff’s downfall — the suicides, business failures, fractured families, shattered charities — and the clear lessons this timeless scandal offers to Washington, Wall Street, and Main Street.
'Diana Henriques, who covered the Madoff scandal for the New York Times, offers a riveting history of Mr Madoff's shady dealings and the shattering consequences of his theft.'
Economist
‘Cogent and well researched, The Wizard of Lies is an engaging narrative… [The book] reveals many moments where Madoff might have been stopped. But his investors were too trusting or too greedy to ask the right questions and US regulators were too cowed and too disorganised.’
Financial Times
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‘[Madoff] is so much like every one of us that failing to recognize this fact will imperil us at every financial turn. This is one of many revelations in Diana Henriques’ stunning new book The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust.’
Reuters
'Impressively detailed and completely absorbing — the best of the books on Madoff to date.'
Lucy Sussex, Sunday Age
‘A riveting history of Mr Madoff’s shady dealings and the shattering consequences of his theft.’
The Economist
‘‘[Henriques] probably knows more than anyone outside the FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission about the mechanics of the fraud. As a consequence, in The Wizard of Lies she is able to add significant detail to the story ... Riveting reading ... In the end the story holds us not because of the engrossing details of the scam, but because of the human dimension.’
Liaquat Ahamed, The New York Times Book Review
‘The definitive book on the subject ... a thrilling, detailed account.’
Today.com
