The Netflix true crime series about the largest financial scam in US history – the media

So Bernie Madoff conducts his illegal activities from the top of the 17th floor of a skyscraper in Manhattan. Legal business takes place on the 19th floor. The document-heavy 17th floor to ceiling conveys an eerie sense of rushing, elusive activity, while two floors above everything is polished to a high gloss. And so the camera keeps moving back and forth between the netherworld and the netherworld in this amazing Netflix series.

Bernie Madoff: Wall Street monster It tells the story of the biggest financial fraud in the history of the United States. It is directed by Joe Berlinger, who has been at home in and more recently with Splatter Scale Jeffrey Dahmer: Self-portrait of a Serial Killer She was a great success. The story of Bernard Madoff does not contain any bloody scenes, but he can compete with some violent criminals in terms of cruelty.

Criminal activities in the stream of legitimacy

In four one-hour episodes, Berlinger tells how steep ups and downs happen: Madoff relies on computer-assisted trading early on and is ahead of his competitors. He is the co-founder and chairman of the New York Stock Exchange NASDAQ and drafts electronic securities trading laws with the authorities.

At the same time, he – the financial genius – runs an investment company from scratch without the approval of the financial regulator. Since the early 1990s at the latest, this business has been organized as a Ponzi scheme: it promises investors high and regular returns on the invested funds. However, it pays returns on investors’ money without making any investments. When, in the panic of the 2008 financial crisis, everyone wanted their money back, the scam was exposed. By that time, the fraud scheme had already grown to 64 billion dollars.

In addition to the video recordings of Madoff’s interrogations, there is an impressive number of his associates saying their word: victims, employees, and journalists. Berlinger deftly weaves her stories into a fascinating thriller, re-enacting scenes and contrasting the impotence of private investors with the continuing failures of supervisory authorities and institutional investors. Madoff’s company is audited multiple times by the financial regulator – and receives the Seal of Compliance. It is financial analyst Harry Markopoulos who continues to present evidence of fraud starting in 1999. Without success.

In the end, Madoff will have stolen from more than three million people. He is referred to several times in the series as a “financial thug”. On the one hand, this is due to the habits of the species, on the other hand, says Markopoulos, “people die before investigations are committed in violent crimes, and later in the case of economic crimes.”

Bernie Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street, on Netflix.

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