Truth Be Told by Larry King

Author:Larry King
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Weinstein Publishing
Published: 2011-05-04T04:00:00+00:00

I’m often asked to name someone I would have liked to interview but never got the chance. Near the top of the list would have to be Madoff. There would be a double lure—it would be a victim interview. I’ve never interviewed anybody who ever committed a crime against me.

I was one of thousands of “investors” who got taken by Madoff. Time magazine estimates there were up to 3 million direct and indirect victims. In some ways, you could say I’m the last guy who should have fallen for his scheme. Over the years, I’ve talked with FBI agents about great frauds and Secret Service agents about counterfeiting. I’ve sat down with the legendary bank robber Willie Sutton. Recalling great crime capers always makes for a great breakfast at Nate ’n Al’s. After hearing all those stories, how could a guy like me not have a clue?

There’s a good answer to that. Bernie Madoff was brilliant. There was even a little Willie Sutton in him. Willie was a robber, but he never carried a gun. He had an amazing mind and he had that great line. I said to him, “You could have been a giant of industry. Why rob banks?”

“That’s where the money is.”

It was logical to him. He was more interested in being outside the law than inside. Robbery attracted his cunning.

Once Sutton pulled off a bank robbery in Queens. Get this setup: What Willie did was go to the bank for months in various disguises—a couple of them female. He opened about eight accounts, deposited money, made withdrawals. The idea was to go almost every day so that all the tellers trusted his characters. In a sense, he befriended the people at the bank. All the while, he was casing the joint.

It took him a couple of months to know every move. He knew exactly when the Brinks boys made their pickups. Then, one day at precisely that time, he came in dressed as a pregnant woman. That gave him ample room to hide bags filled with confetti next to his stomach. The bags looked just like the ones the bank used for the Brinks pickups. He casually switched his bags for ones that had cash and walked out the door. There were no video cameras in those days to replay what had happened. Nobody even discovered the switch until that night when the money was counted.

You know how cunning Willie was? He kept going back to the bank dressed in the different disguises for weeks after the robbery. The investigators never suspected any of his characters because none of them stopped making deposits. The police just couldn’t solve the crime. They found out only when Sutton was caught for another robbery and decided to confess.

One reason why Madoff’s scheme worked for as long as it did was that he was disguised. He didn’t need a costume as elaborate as maternity wear. His disguise was much better than that. He was disguised as himself—the former chairman of NASDAQ and a pillar of the Jewish community.

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