Even after he confessed to orchestrating the biggest Ponzi scheme in history, Bernard L. Madoff insisted on two points that have since been exposed in court as lies: He acted alone, and his separate market-making operation was "legitimate, profitable and successful in all respects," the Wall Street Journal reported today. Five years ago today, Madoff became a household name due to the breathtaking audacity and scope of his fraud, which resulted in more than $17 billion in losses for more than 12,000 investors world-wide. But a more complete picture of the breadth of his scam is only now coming into focus, thanks in part to a continuing trial in New York federal court that is bolstering a bankruptcy trustee's findings after a review of more than 33 million documents. The trial has highlighted how investigators have reversed their view that, as Madoff had insisted, the market-making and trading operation was walled off from the fraud. They now believe that busy trading desk became Madoff's front, actually losing tens of millions of dollars a year and kept alive with hidden subsidies from the Ponzi scheme, according to Bruce Dubinsky, a forensic accountant with Duff & Phelps LLC, who was hired by the bankruptcy trustee.
