Celebrities
Elie Wiesel Says He Lost Life Savings with Madoff, Suggests Punishment
Posted Feb 27, 2009 5:54 PM CST
By Martha Neil
Famed Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel says he and his wife lost their life savings because it was invested in Bernard Madoff's claimed $50 billion Ponzi scheme.
In addition, his charity, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, lost $15.2 million, writes the New York Times, reporting on comments Wiesel made in a panel discussion yesterday on the Madoff scandal.
Wiesel, who teaches at Boston University and is about to publish another book, clearly isn't as badly off as some of those reportedly left penniless by the record-breaking alleged fraud. But the 80-year-old is nonetheless angry and, when asked how he thought Madoff--who is presently under house arrest in a $7 million home on Manhattan's Upper East Side--should be punished, if he is convicted in the fraud case, Wiesel had a ready answer.
"I would like to see him in a solitary cell with only a screen," he says, "and on that screen for at least five years of his life, every day and every night, there should be pictures of his victims, one after the other after the other, all the time a voice saying, 'Look what you have done to this old lady, look what you have done to that child, look what you have done,' nothing else."
Additional coverage:
Associated Press: "Wiesel recounts meeting Madoff, losing millions"
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Comments
B. McLeod
Feb 27, 2009 6:50 PM CST
Even this, our law does not provide for. The victims need to accept that Madoff will never receive any meaningful punishment. Accept, and move on.
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Fredricka Finkelstein (again, not my real name:>)
Feb 28, 2009 12:58 PM CST
Big boo hoo from those swimming in money who just wanted more and more and so went with this guy Madoff. I saw the hit list. Not an auto mechanic or plumber or nurse on it.
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Richard T. Seymour
Feb 28, 2009 4:34 PM CST
Contrary to a prior posting, there are a number of ordinary people among Madoff’s victims. I do not understand the schadenfreude of those who jeer at the victims as somehow deserving their loss, whether they are of ordinary income or not. Does not even the plight of the truly selfless affect them? What of the many persons who could have been helped by the charities that lost their money? And coming full circle, I do not understand the idea that fraud is somehow more acceptable if it only affects “them.” Categorizing humanity into “us” and “them” has seldom worked well for anyone. Fraud is fraud, and Wiesel has suggested a morally proper punishment, even if the law does not recognize it. It does recognize severe punishment, and I expect that Madoff will spend the rest of his life in prison. Most of us would think that meaningful.
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B. McLeod
Feb 28, 2009 8:41 PM CST
Jeremiah was a bullfrog. I don’t know about Elie.
But I’ll tell you Dick, the law won’t do much to Bernie Madoff. See, the first thing that will happen is, he’ll delay as long as possible, to see if he can die his way out of the indictment without even a conviction. If he successfully makes that play, he’s technically and legally “innocent,” forever, just as if acquitted. On the other hand, If he does end up going to trial, he’ll get some fine (which he won’t pay), and some term of years that looks really grand on paper. However, the first day he is in the slammer, he’ll start with the “special medical accommodation” and “you don’t have the facilites” arguments, and the “you can’t be cruel to me just because I ripped off $50 Billion argument.” And you know what, Dick? Because we’ve become such a nation of lily-livered, limp-wristed, pusillanimous fops, who can’t stand to punish a poor old criminal, he’ll get out for that, after only a few years (at best). So, he won’t “spend the rest of his life in prison.” He’ll end up doing less time than the inmates around this great land who are in for stealing a few grand, or jacking a car worth a few hundred bucks. You see, when somebody steals really big, the system takes care of him. It’s “white collar” crime, Dick. It’s almost not a crime at all. HOORAY!!
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Peden
Mar 1, 2009 3:47 PM CST
What a sad situation. And I have to agree with Richard Seymour. Shame on you Fredricka Finkelstein. Now if you want to b**ch about tax evaders, and thieves, and insider traders, and ponzi scam artists, that is one thing. But just because someone has more money than you, even if they earned it honestly and through hard work (or even if they were fortunate enough to be a trust fund baby) you harbor them ill will? That just sounds like sour grapes to me.
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Allen Sheketovits
Mar 2, 2009 7:26 AM CST
Oy, that Madoff was a real Weasel, or should I say Wiesel?
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fed up
Mar 2, 2009 11:47 AM CST
The problem with Elie Wiesel is that he likely invested with Madoff because of discrimination, wanting to keep his money with another Member Of The Tribe. In doing so he ignored a fundamental rule of investing, diversification, and put all his eggs in one basket. As a Member Of The Tribe himself, Madoff played this to his advantage, the feeling that they are smarter than the rest of us. So Wiesel is double burned: he lost his money AND his belief of superiority. That must really hurt.
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Bill Dugan
Mar 2, 2009 12:15 PM CST
Have pity on the old guy for not diversifying, but don’t be secretly happy he has lost. We all can can be in this position, and as a 3rd party observer, you will not fare well by making veiled Anti-Semetic references. He was right about one thing—they are smarter than you.
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fed up
Mar 2, 2009 3:05 PM CST
To #8, the charge of anti-Semitism is a spurious cheap shot. Madoff and many of his investors engaged in a discriminatory scheme and got burned. Madoff courted Jews and traded on his Jewish connections, touting his superior knowledge and exclusivity. Many of those who participated did so in a discriminatory manor, to the exclusion of nonsectarian investment firms, because they thought they were smarter than the rest of us. It was a type of “blind faith” because even rudimentary due diligence would have revealed likely fraud. You claim he is smarter than me, perhaps so (many people are), but his discriminatory investing practice clouded his intellect.
If you are really concerned about anti-Semitism, consider the lawyers responsible for the Holocaust. Lawyers legally created the “final solution”. It began with the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, the so-called blood and honor laws, and finalized at the Wannsee conference January 20, 1942, near Berlin. More than half the attendees were lawyers, including Dr. Wilhelm Stuckart, Erich Neumann, Dr. Josef Bühler, Dr. Roland Freisler, Dr. Rudolf Lange, Dr. Gerhard Klopfer, Wilhelm Kritzinger, Dr. Alfred Meyer, Dr. Eberhard Schöngarth. Sometimes history takes a long time to unwind.
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B. McLeod
Mar 2, 2009 9:05 PM CST
Actually, it “finalized” on the morning of May 2, 1945, when Soviet infantry and artillery silenced the last of the German defenders attempting to hold the reinforced concrete flak tower near the Berlin Zoo.
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cliff huckstable
Mar 12, 2009 7:11 AM CST
I am so happy all these “people” lost their money….All the causes who lost money were a detriment to America and all those affected will now have a smaller time table to rape Americas resources for their financial gain…Yippppeeeee !!!!
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Joey
Mar 12, 2009 5:46 PM CST
That is so hilarious that the “never again” guy lost his fortune to a JEW who swindled him out of every penny! I was forced to read his tripe in college and only after I witnessed the horrors unfold in Rawanda and especially in the Balkans that I finally understood what he meant: “Never again - to Jews!” Everyone else could go f* themselves in his view. Not one single word from this supposed moral giant about all the people killed since say oh I don’t know… 1944? HAH! Whatever you worship you will lose, especially if it is money that you worship!
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