“A penetrating account of the web of lies that won the late con man Bernie Madoff his billions… A well-written, swift-moving story of true crime and punishment.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“A savvy debut… Behar skillfully elucidates Madoff’s scheme… Behar’s entertaining account shows how easily a sociopathic liar will be enabled by a greedy system.”
— Publishers Weekly
One of eight “new books with star power.”
— Sept-Oct issue of AARP: The Magazine (America’s largest-circulation publication)
Photo by Lizzie Cohen
“The biggest financial Ponzi scheme in history….Behar spoke to Madoff in prison more than 50 times. Well, I’ll ask you one more thing about Bernie Madoff. He said to you, ‘So where’s the book already?’ [laughter]. You’d been talking to him for, like, ten years, and he said to you, ‘You’re not going to finish this book until after I’m dead,’ and he was right.”
— Terry Gross, host of NPR’s ‘Fresh Air’
“Behar probes the mind of America’s most notorious financial fraudster and considers a personal connection to the long con… Their conversations and voluminous written correspondence form the basis of Behar’s first book… A deeply reported and occasionally overwhelmingly detailed examination of Madoff’s motives and methods that includes fresh insights from FBI agents and former prosecutors… enough nuggets of information to raise some eyebrows about Ruth and her sons.”
— Washington Post
“Behar approaches this towering mountain of material with rigor… Madoff: The Final Word carefully explains complicated matters like the turned cheek of J.P. Morgan Chase, which Behar calls ‘a gluttonous hydra when it came to Bernie,’ and the trial of the Madoff Five… Behar, too, seems determined to see Madoff’s humanity, and the tragedy of his family.”
— New York Times
“Behar stayed on the case for 15 years… Although the U.S. Attorney’s Office ultimately agreed to date the start of Madoff ’s fraud to 1992, Behar leaves no doubt that Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme basically from the start [early 1960s]. Behar got the interviews that Madoff ’s former right-hand man, Frank DiPascali, who died in 2015, did with the F.B.I., in which he told them, ‘the whole business has been a scam.’”
— Airmail
“[Madoff: The Final Word] offers extraordinary access into the mind and motives of the financial world’s most famous conman.”
— Daily Mail (UK)
About the Author
Business reporter Richard Behar has garnered more than 20 major journalism awards over a career spanning four decades. He was called “one of the most dogged of our watchdogs” by the late Jack Anderson—a founding father of modern investigative reporting—as well as “the best writer of any investigative reporter I’ve ever worked with” by Fortune managing editor Rik Kirkland.
His first book “Madoff: The Final Word,”—the culmination of 15 years of investigation—was published in 2024 by Avid Reader Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. (Bernie Madoff ran history’s largest and longest-running fraud—a $68 billion Ponzi scheme. Behar exposed the complicity and wrongdoing of family members, and established that the fraud dated to the early 1960s, when Madoff began his career on Wall Street.)
From 1982-2004, Behar worked on the staffs of Forbes, Time and Fortune magazines. He did assignments from 2001-2008 for the BBC, CNN, FoxNews.com and PBS. In 2005, he launched Project Klebnikov, a global media alliance committed to shedding light on the Moscow murder of Forbes editor Paul Klebnikov and to furthering the investigative work that Paul began. (Founding members of “Project K” include Bloomberg, The Economist, Forbes and Vanity Fair.) In 2011, he returned to Forbes as its Contributing Editor, Investigations. He is also currently at work as an associate producer (and one of the narrators) of an upcoming docuseries on organized crime in the former Soviet Union.
Behar’s travels have taken him to more than 40 countries—including within the sub-Sahara, where he penned a 24-page special report for Fast Company magazine entitled “China Storms Africa.” (The article won George Polk and Overseas Press Club awards.)
Awards include the Gerald Loeb, Polk (twice), National Magazine, Overseas Press Club (twice), Daniel Pearl, and Worth Bingham Prize, among other honors—on subjects ranging from terror financing in Karachi to corporate wrongdoing on Wall Street to the Russian mob in Siberia. His work in the 1980s exposing corruption inside the IRS sparked a Congressional hearing that led to reforms, and he was praised by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau for his award-winning articles exposing organized crime in New York City’s garbage trade.
Behar was included among the 100 top business journalists of the 20th century by The Journalist and Financial Reporter. He received the rarely bestowed Conscience-in-Media Award for “singular commitment to the highest principles of journalism at notable personal cost” from the American Society of Journalists and Authors—for a Time cover story on the Church of Scientology. In 2001, he was named “Business Journalist of the Year” by the Corporation of London (the city’s governing body) for two Fortune articles: a cover story about counterfeiting in China, and an exposé on the Russia aluminum empire of the billionaire Reuben brothers.
In 2002, as part of CNN’s Investigation Team, Behar received the National Headliner Award for “outstanding continuing coverage of attacks on America and their aftermath.” He exposed a logistics leader of the 9-11 attacks in “The Karachi Connection,” reported from Pakistan. He is the only known journalist to have read the classified “Phoenix Memo,” the infamous FBI document that warned the FBI about Osama bin Laden supporters enrolling in flight-training schools across the U.S.
Over the past decade, Behar has published numerous Forbes exposés. Subjects range from Israeli-Palestinian high-tech joint ventures to the growth of ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arab Israelis in the same sector; from anti-Israel media bias to World Bank corruption; from the Paul Klebnikov murder case to Hess Oil’s ties to a Russian Mob; from China-sponsored cyber espionage to President Donald Trump’s former business dealings with a mob-connected felon.
In 2017, the Yale Law School’s media freedom clinic (MFIA) represented Behar in a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security—seeking Secret Service records identifying visitors to Trump, his family members, and campaign officials during the 2015 presidential campaign. After viewing the records in private, a federal judge required their disclosure, but an appeals court panel reversed that decision. In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
Behar was born in Manhattan and raised on Long Island. He is a graduate of New York University, where he has served on an advisory committee of NYU’s business journalism master’s program.
Madoff: The Final Word
From The Publisher:
Fifteen years after Bernie Madoff’s arrest, renowned investigative journalist Richard Behar delivers the definitive account of history’s largest—and longest-running—financial fraud.
Some $68 billion evaporated during Bernie Madoff’s epic confidence game. Two people were driven to suicide in the wake of the Ponzi scheme’s exposure. Others went to prison. But there has never been a satisfying account of how Bernie got away with so much, for so long.
Until now.
Richard Behar’s relationship with Madoff began in 2011 with a simple email request from the inmate. By the time Madoff died in 2021, he had sent Behar more than three hundred emails and dozens of handwritten letters, participated in some fifty phone conversations, and sat for three in-person jailhouse interviews—a level of access provided to no other reporter. Behar also established relationships with hundreds of regulators, prosecutors, FBI agents, investors, Wall Street experts, ex-employees of Madoff’s, family members, school classmates, and others.
The result is the final word on the criminal behind history’s most enduring fraud—and on those who believed him, covered for him, or locked him up. Behar illuminates not only the fraud’s origins—decades earlier than Madoff claimed in his confession—but also the complicity of investors, Wall Street insiders, family members, and some of the largest banks in the U.S. and Europe.
Shocking, infuriating, and riveting (and at times absurdly funny), Madoff shows us how Bernie ensnared thousands of investors. As Behar’s dogged reporting over the last fifteen years makes clear, however, there aren’t many innocents left standing by the end of this tale. Just about everyone involved is guilty, at a minimum, of humanity’s most consistent weakness: greed.
Breaking fresh ground on history’s greatest fraudster; family complicity and wrongdoing; and when the fraud actually began: A sizzle reel of recent talks about “Madoff: The Final Word.” Includes audio excerpts of conversations with Bernie, and confidential FBI documents.
Awards
GEORGE POLK AWARD
“Excellence in Journalism – Magazine Reporting”
Long Island University
1995, 2008, [Finalist 2013]
ED CUNNINGHAM AWARD
“best magazine reporting from abroad”
Overseas Press Club of America
2008
BEST IN BUSINESS AWARD
Enterprise [Large Magazines]; Best of Best
Society of American Business Editors and Writers
2008
DANIEL PEARL AWARD
“Outstanding print reporting on South Asia by a U.S. journalist”
South Asian Journalists Association, Columbia University
2003
MORTON FRANK AWARD
“best business reporting from abroad in magazines”
Overseas Press Club of America
2003
NATIONAL HEADLINER AWARD
“outstanding continuing coverage (CNN Investigation Team) of attacks on America and their aftermath”
Press Club of Atlantic City
2002
DEADLINE CLUB AWARD
“Best News Reporting” and “Best Business Reporting”
Society of Professional Journalists
2002, 1998, 1995 [Finalist 2009]
BUSINESS JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
“Overall Winner”
The Corporation of London; World Leadership Forum
2001 [Finalist 2009]
BUSINESS NEWS LUMINARY OF THE CENTURY
“The Top 100”
The Journalist and Financial Reporting Group
2000
SOPA AWARD
“Best Feature Writing”
Society of Publishers in Asia
2000
JACK ANDERSON AWARD
“top investigative reporter of the year”
International Platform Association
1999, 1997
NATIONAL HEADLINER AWARD
“coverage of a major news event”
Press Club of Atlantic City
1999, 1997, 1996
NATIONAL MAGAZINE AWARD
“editorial excellence”
American Society of Magazine Editors, Columbia University
2008, 1995 [Finalist 2013]
GERALD LOEB AWARD
“for distinguished business and financial journalism”
The Anderson School at UCLA
1992 [Finalist 2000 and 2013]
CONSCIENCE-IN-MEDIA AWARD
“for singular commitment to the highest principles of journalism at notable personal cost”
American Society of Journalists and Authors
1992
BUSINESS INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER-OF-THE-YEAR
Business News Reporter
The Journalist and Financial Reporting Group
1992
WORTH BINGHAM PRIZE
“for distinguished investigative reporting”
White House Correspondents Association dinner
1991
Behar was also a finalist for the Michael Kelly Award for “the fearless pursuit and expression of truth” (2009) and an IRE Award, Investigative Reporters & Editors (1998 and 2000).
Articles [A Sampling]
Articles
[A Sampling]
The Sins Of Ruth Madoff [An exclusive adapted book excerpt] 07/07/24 – Forbes
The Kazakhstan Connection: Questions About Trump And Bayrock – Key Documents – 05/14/17 – National Memo
CHINA STORMS AFRICA: With its resource-hungry push into the sub-Sahara, Beijing puts the planet to the test – 06/01/08 – Fast Company
How Many Red Flags Did My Aunt Adele Need On Her Madoff Statements – 07/31/24 – Forbes
The Bayrock-Trump Correspondence – 10/03/16 – Forbes
BREAKING NEWS – FBI’s “Phoenix Memo” Unmasked: Fortune’s investigative reporter, the only journalist to see confidential document, reveals its true name and nature – 05/22/02 – Fortune
The Hitman And The G-Man: An Extraordinary Case Of Brotherhood, Trust, Rescue From The Gambino Mob — And Potential Business Together – 12/21/20 – Forbes
Trump And The Oligarch ‘Trio’ – 10/03/16 – Forbes
‘Fortune’ Reporter Discusses Phoenix Memo – 05/22/02 – CNN
Another Anniversary Of Forbes Editor Paul Klebnikov’s Unsolved Moscow Murder. (But Rumors Of Death Of “Project K” Are Exaggerated.) – 07/15/20 – Forbes
Donald Trump And The Felon: Inside His Business Dealings With A Mob-Connected Hustler – 10/03/16 – Forbes
Kidnapped Nation: Welcome to Pakistan, America’s frontline ally in the war on terror, where culture and economy conspire against even the best intentions. – 03/29/02 – Fortune [archive.org]
Wiseguys Know Pizza: Two Former Colombo Mobsters, Role Models Today, Launching Franchise Stores (The Secret Sauce? Science) – 03/13/20 – Forbes
My Family In Israel: One Direct Hit, Two Near Misses — And The Brainwashing Behind The Rockets – 05/11/15 – Forbes
The Karachi Connection: bin Laden’s Terror Engineer – Capturing fugitive Said Bahaji could foil further al Qaeda attacks. Our reporter tracks him to Pakistan. – 10/20/01 – Fortune/CNN
Best Stories of the Decade: “Hess Oil’s Russian Mob Problem” – 12/23/19 – Forbes
Open Letter to Russia’s Putin On Tenth Anniversary of Forbes’ Editor Paul Klebnikov’s Murder: Why Haven’t You Solved It? – 10/16/14 – Forbes
Drug Spies: Piracy is the pharmaceutical industry’s dirty little secret; fighting back has become its dirty little war. With the stakes this high, there are no rules, no conventions. But that doesn’t mean there haven’t been prisoners. – 09/06/99 – Fortune [archive.org]
My Time In Brunei: Why The Hotel Boycott Over Stoning Gays Has Resonance – 04/14/19 – Forbes
Peace Through Profts? Inside The Tech Ventures That Are Reshaping The Israeli-Arab-Palestinian World – 09/29/13 – Forbes cover (Cisco CEO John Chambers)
Scientology: The Cult of Greed – 05/06/91 – Time cover