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The Age of Accountability
The “My Boss Told Me to Do It” Defense Is No Defense!
That’s when I realized we were all on our own.
—Eleanor Squillari, Bernard Madoff’s secretary
Eleanor Squillari remembers December 12, 2008. Her boss had been arrested for securities fraud the day before, and FBI agents were swarming throughout her office building. She recalls, “The phones were ringing off the hook, the fax machines were spitting out reams of paper from clients demanding redemptions, and a group of at least 25 angry investors down in the lobby were screaming for someone to come and speak with them.”
Eleanor found Peter Madoff, Bernie’s brother and the company’s chief compliance officer, and asked him, “What am I supposed to be telling all these people?” His response, according to Eleanor: “He just threw up his hands and walked away.”
That’s when it hit her: Eleanor—and everyone else in the company, for that matter—was completely and utterly on her own.
The FBI agents confirmed this point to Squillari when she later told them she had agreed to coauthor the June 2009 Bernie Madoff story in Vanity Fair. “You need to take care of yourself,” one of them said, “because nobody else will.” Amen to that!
