Author's Note on Sources
Since Bernie Madoff was a relative unknown until his arrest, his bibliography was limited to a couple of magazine profiles noted in the text of this book, a mention in at least one book about Wall Street, the subject of a couple of "red flag" articles such as the Barron's piece, and quotes and references here and there over the years in financial stories. In essence, not a whole lot.
Therefore, it wasn't until his arrest that Bernie became an ongoing, headline-making story wherever around the world people had been scammed by him. As of July 6, 2009, for example, there were 212 million Google references for his name, while President Barack Obama garnered 61.4 million.
Much of this book was based on interviews conducted by the author (see Acknowledgments), with much help from the daily newspaper chronicles and the few monthly magazines (and all their related web sites) that covered the ongoing investigation. Dozens of excellent reporters worked the story.
That said, I would like to point out that all persons directly interviewed by the author are quoted in the present tense. The past tense is used only for quotes or other material coming from newspapers, magazines, or court documents, and I've attempted to cite those sources in the text of the book.
In some cases I've interviewed persons in greater depth who were first mentioned in news accounts or online. I've attempted to differentiate the author interviews of those people by using the present tense where ...
