Bernie Madoff's a Crook, But He Didn't Lose $50 Billion

Bernie Madoff hardly seems like a real person to me anymore. He's more like a breathing allegory of evil -- an Iago for our times. But this is still an interesting thing. Remember way back to the early days of Madoff-mania when the number $50 billion was thrown around to ballpark his investors losses? Turns out that number was way, way too high.

From The Big Money:

An AP story today notes that the estimates of how much investor money Bernie Madoff lost have been wildly exaggerated. You'll recall that since Madoff's arrest last December, the figure of $50 billion was widely cited. But as TBM noted back in March, that number "has a single source, and we got it fourth-hand." It's in the nature of a Ponzi scheme to count losses twice, but since we still don't know where a lot of Madoff's assets ended up, it's literally impossible to calculate the total loss figure. Our best estimate in March was $20 billion. The AP story notes that "about half of [Madoff's] customers had not lost money because they withdrew more money than they originally invested." The AP says the government's current working estimate is $13 billion. Still, we suspect that people will continue to toss around the $50 billion figure, evidence of just how sticky early lies can become.

I'm relieved to hear that half the customers didn't lose any money, but for those left with nothing, perhaps it only makes the pain more acute. And although it's about one-quarter the initial estimate, $13,000,000,000 (as if it bears reminding) is still an unfathomable amount of money to swindle from friends and family.