The wizard of lies

Bernard Madoff and the story of the greatest financial fraud of all time. The book that inspired the film starring Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer. Around 1992, Bernard Madoff, founder and chairman of one of Wall Street's most prominent investment firms, began orchestrating a Ponzi scheme with connections across the globe. Investment funds with high interest rates attracted the interest of a growing number of investors, who had no idea they were becoming involved in a sophisticated pyramid scheme. The operation was only uncovered in 2008, when the market was devastated by the global crisis and investors were unable to withdraw their deposits. Until then recognized as the wizard of Wall Street, Madoff saw the collapse of the scheme reveal losses in the tens of billions of dollars, which highlighted the house of cards on which he had built his empire. In a true-to-life financial thriller, Diana B. Henriques of the New York Times debunks many of the myths about the man who stole nearly $65 billion from his friends, family, and investors.