Bernie Madoff Builds a Pyramid

It is hard to cheat an honest man.

Bernie Madoff Builds a Pyramid

 

By Elton Camp

 

When Bernie came into the world in ’38,

Nobody could have imagined his fate.

He commenced to live regular enough

High school, college�"all that stuff.

 

Bernie’s father once a plumber had been

It was as a stockbroker that he started to win.

Bernie decided to handle others’ money.

Did some things that sure looked funny.

 

He proceeded an empire to build

Positions then with family he filled.

Even involved his own wife Ruth

Never bothered to tell her the truth.

 

“I’ll undertake much charitable work.

Then nobody will suspect I’m a jerk.

I must look respectable as can be.

So that all come to fully trust me.”

 

“When I supply the returns that they need,

They will be driven on by their own greed.

As their big fortunes started to accrue,

They had to know it couldn’t be true.”

 

Bernie decided that he should enjoy the ride.

So he arranged in the greatest luxury to reside.

His older ranch house in Roslyn couldn’t compare

To one in France and a mansion in Florida to spare.

 

Nor did any prosperity he try to hide

Lived in Manhattan’s ritzy east side.

Another extravagance that he got

Was Bull, a fifty-five foot yacht.

 

Harry Markopolos and others filed complaint,

But Madoff’s reputation it did not a bit taint.

The Securities and Exchange Commission

Took, to those reports, a very lenient position.

 

Whistleblowers told of their fears

Kept doing it for over ten years.

SEC checked into his dirty tricks

But found nothing even after six.

 

Bernie later admitted his surprise

When the facts they didn’t realize.

“It was so plain for all to see

A Ponzi scheme it must be.”

 

Then, at last, the day of reckoning came.

Bernie no longer could play the game.

“I’m sorry, but there is nothing left.

Of investors’ funds I am now bereft.”

 

It was what he knew would come true.

It collapsed as all pyramid schemes do.

When it all came to fail,

Old Bernie then faced jail.

 

“Judge, I am as guilty as can be.

Nobody was in on it except me.

To those who have been had,

About your loss I feel so bad.”

 

“Send me to prison for the rest of my life,

But don’t try to blame my sons or my wife.

They didn’t know what I was up to.

They thought I was a genius true.”

 

“I am the one totally to blame

With lasting shame to my name.

But what helped me do the deed

Was my clients’ excessive greed.”

 

Such returns should have been a warning clear.

A promise like Bernie made they should fear.

More alert they really should have been,

For this they have some share in his sin.