The Believers: How America Fell for Bernard Madoff's $65 Billion Investment Scam [Hardcover]

Adam LeBor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2010

It was in luxurious Palm Beach, by the manicured lawns and Olympic-sized swimming pool, that financier Bernard Madoff ravaged the world of philanthropy and high society he strove so hard to join; vaporizing the assets of charities, foundations, and individuals that had trusted him with their funds. It seems nothing was sacrosanct to Madoff, possibly the greatest con-man in history—even Elie Wiesel's foundation lost tens of millions. How could Madoff, a pillar of the Jewish community, do this to a Nobel Laureate and Auschwitz survivor? How could some of the most sophisticated and worldly people in America fall victim to a collective delusion for years? To answer these unsettling questions, this book opens up the clubbish world where Madoff operated, tracing the links from Palm Beach and the Hamptons to the clubs of Manhattan society. It details the network of relationships across which flows hundreds of millions of dollars, and shows how despite material success and acclaim, some human impulses remain eternal. It reveals how an underlying sense of insecurity still shapes some of the richest and most successful individuals in America, making them crave ever more status and peer acclaim.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'LeBor calls Madoff a modern "schtarker", or gangster, who used technology, charm and brilliant social connections to rule, and, ultimately, destroy. His motivation was deep and determined - the result speaks for itself.' CITY A.M. 'In these turbulent times we want a morality tale, dressed up with glamour and glitz, about how Madoff seduced and shafted the rich, sophisticated and stupid. LeBor stumps up these rewards in a lively story that will satisfy even the economically literate.' THE TIMES 'This book brilliantly answers the "How?" question about Bernie Madoff and his giant Ponzi, or pyramid-selling, scheme. Madoff used a mixture of charm, arrogance and breathtaking cruelty.' -- Bryan Appleyard NEW STATESMAN 'a fascinating, poignant, subtle portrait of the United States itself.' -- Simon Sebag Montefiore THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'The chilling message of this account is that no regulatory regime, however sophisticated, can ever totally protect us from the chameleon fraudster.' -- Bill Jamieson THE SCOTSMAN 'LeBor's great strength, in addition to a page-turning journalistic style, lies in his detailed and perceptive analysis of how and why so many so-called experts were fooled for so long.' THE OLDIE

About the Author

Adam LeBor is an author and journalist with more than 25 years experience who

currently reports from Central Europe for the Times. His previous books include City of Oranges, Complicity with Evil, and Seduced by Hitler.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Orion Publishing (January 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0297859196
• ISBN-13: 978-0297859192
• Product Dimensions: 1 x 5.5 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,462,081 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Adam LeBor is a British author and journalist. He has written seven critically-acclaimed non-fiction works including the best-selling 'Hitler's Secret Bankers', an investigation into Swiss complicity with the Third Reich, which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize, and 'City of Oranges', the story of six Arab and Jewish families in Jaffa, which was shortlisted for the Jewish Quarterly Wingate Literary Prize.

His most recent non-fiction work, 'The Believers', an investigation into the Madoff fraud, focusing on the psychology and sociology of the $65 billion scam, is published by Weidenfeld and Nicholson. His first novel, 'The Budapest Protocol', a conspiracy thriller inspired by wartime US intelligence documents about the Nazis' secret post-war plans, was published this year to great reviews. Foreign rights to his books have been sold in fourteen countries including America, Japan, France, Spain, Israel, Poland, Hungary and Indonesia.

He writes for The Times of London, the Sunday Times and Monocle magazine and reviews books for The Sunday Times, the Economist, the New York Times and the Jewish Chronicle. He has appeared at the Edinburgh and Bath literary festivals, Jewish Book Week and the Montreal literary festival.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Shallow and poorly written, October 9, 2010

By 

Lutfi Zakhour (UAE) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Believers: How America Fell for Bernard Madoff's $65 Billion Investment Scam (Paperback)

While how Madoff was able to run such a scam for almost three decades is unbelievable, this book really does not get to the bottom of the story. It seems that the author relied too much on publicly available information and only uncovers little insignificant details. Worse yet, the book is poorly written and structured, at times reading as though it was quickly edited to release it in time to make some money while the topic was hot.