It Takes a Thief: Bernie Made Off With Really Big $$$

Yesterday's Tribune published a list, several lists, actually, of the people scammed by smiling Bernie Madoff, the New York based thief who masqueraded as an investment advisor for a few decades and stole $50 billion. There's some pretty heavy hitters on the list, e.g.:

• Kevin Bacon - actor, rocker and Footloose guy
• Newton Minnow (as trustee)-the former chairman of the FCC
• Larry King-"Bernie Madoff...hello..."
• Sandy Koufax- famous Dodger pitcher from the 60's
• Kyra Sedgwick - actress. I see her all over, but what's she been in?
• John Denver - well, the estate of. Man, ripping off a dead guy?
• John Malkovich - scary!
• Steven Spielberg - movie genius, apparently gullible investor
• Elie Wiesel Foundation - like looting the widows and orphans fund
• A French investment bank, a French consumer bank and a French insurance company - insert your own punchline.

There's some discussion about whether Bernie is a psychopath. Hah!

Bernie's under house arrest--in his $7 million dollar Manhattan apartment. Hah!

Bernie has a 55 foot yacht on the French Riviera. Hawhnhh! (that's French for "Hah!")

Bernie has a $21 million house in Palm Beach and a 10 handicap. No more hah's. No more Bernie stuff. There is too much information to summarize, and it just gets sleazier and sleazier. But there's a happy ending: it's Friday, none of us had enough money to make Bernie want to rip us off and there was actually a bit of good in the Bernie story.

His sons turned him in.

Hah!