美国国家公共电台 NPR For Madoff Victims, Scars Remain 10 Years Later

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Ten years ago, this country was reeling from the worst financial crisis in decades, and in the middle of it all came shocking news. Bernie Madoff, a pillar of Wall Street, was arrested for orchestrating a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme.

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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The news, spread fast and quickly, engendered¹ panic amongst investors³ who gathered at the offices of their alleged⁴ swindler.

GREENE: Hundreds of people were told the money they'd invested with Madoff's firm was probably gone. They included rich and famous people but also those of more modest means. Now, many of those investors have recovered most of the money they lost. But as NPR's Jim Zarroli reports, they're still living with the consequences of Madoff's fraud.

JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE⁵: To his investors, Bernie Madoff was a Wall Street genius, a man who racked up big returns year after year, no matter how the economy was doing. But Madoff lived with a terrible secret. And in 2008, with the economy crashing, he was forced to admit that his investments were a fiction. In tapes published by New York Magazine later, Madoff talked about breaking the news to his family.

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BERNIE MADOFF: Everybody was just like stunned⁶. You know, I was crying. And I said, look; you know, I just - you know, I don't know what else to tell you.

ZARROLI: As news of Madoff's Ponzi scheme broke, thousands of investors, including many charities, learned they didn't have the money they thought they had. They included Steve Heimoff, a writer and critic whose retirement⁷ fund was wiped out.

STEVE HEIMOFF: I had an email from a cousin of mine, and I read through the body of her email, and she explained that it was all gone - every penny.

ZARROLI: Before then, Heimoff had never heard of Madoff, but an investment fund used by him and his family had been feeding money to Madoff's firm. Now that money had vanished. And at age 62, Heimoff was forced to refinance his condo and severely⁸ cut back on spending.

HEIMOFF: I just stopped going to restaurants. I stopped buying clothing. I stopped going on vacations. I stopped going to movies.

ZARROLI: The toll⁹ his losses would take on Heimoff was considerable.

HEIMOFF: I came very close to suicide for at least a year. It's been very emotionally exhausting. There's an element of post-traumatic stress syndrome¹⁰.

ZARROLI: In the years since then, Madoff, who's now 80, pleaded guilty and was sent to federal prison - so were six of the people who worked at the firm, including Madoff's brother, Peter. One of Madoff's sons hung himself in his New York apartment. Meanwhile, the court appointed a trustee to try to recover what he could from the wreckage¹¹ of Madoff's finances. That trustee is Irving Picard. He spoke¹² to NPR's Weekend Edition on Sunday about how he worked.

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IRVING PICARD: A lot of hard work, some good lawyers working with us and forensic¹³ accountants and investigators¹⁴, and we developed the case from the ground up.

ZARROLI: The fund has so far recovered about $13 billion, partly by selling off Madoff's houses and his 55-foot yacht named Bull. The money will go to Madoff victims. Surprisingly, many of them will get back most of the funds they invested with Madoff, but they're only receiving money they actually put into the fund. Those great returns they thought they were getting, the money in those monthly statements Madoff sent out, virtually all of that is gone. Michael De Vita estimates he'll get back about 60 percent of what he put into Madoff's fund.

MICHAEL DE VITA: I retired¹⁵ in August of 2018 - eight years later than I expected - on less than a third of what I expected to retire on.

ZARROLI: Nor will investors get back much of the taxes they paid over the years on those returns. De Vita has become something of an investor² advocate since then and teaches a college course on Madoff. He says a lot of people weren't very sympathetic to Madoff victims.

DE VITA: There was a lot of feelings back at that time that people who were invested with Madoff, quote, "got what they deserved" - that the returns were too good to be true, and therefore you took advantage of the system, and you know what? Ha ha, we got you.

ZARROLI: But De Vita says a lot of Madoff victims weren't sophisticated or rich. They were just average people like himself, people who naively¹⁶ trusted Madoff with their retirement money and have paid a terrible price. Jim Zarroli, NPR News, New York.

1 engendered   

v.产生（某形势或状况），造成，引起( engender的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The issue engendered controversy. 这个问题引起了争论。
• The meeting engendered several quarrels. 这次会议发生了几次争吵。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 investor   

n.投资者，投资人

参考例句：

• My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
• The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。

3 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

4 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 stunned   

adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The fall stunned me for a moment. 那一下摔得我昏迷了片刻。
• The leaders of the Kopper Company were then stunned speechless. 科伯公司的领导们当时被惊得目瞪口呆。

7 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

8 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

9 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

10 syndrome   

n.综合病症；并存特性

参考例句：

• The Institute says that an unidentified virus is to blame for the syndrome. 该研究所表示,引起这种综合症的是一种尚未确认的病毒。
• Results indicated that 11 fetuses had Down syndrome. 结果表明有11个胎儿患有唐氏综合征。

11 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。

12 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

13 forensic   

adj.法庭的，雄辩的

参考例句：

• The report included his interpretation of the forensic evidence.该报告包括他对法庭证据的诠释。
• The judge concluded the proceeding on 10:30 Am after one hour of forensic debate.经过近一个小时的法庭辩论后，法官于10时30分宣布休庭。

14 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

16 naively   

adv. 天真地

参考例句：

• They naively assume things can only get better. 他们天真地以为情况只会变好。
• In short, Knox's proposal was ill conceived and naively made. 总而言之，诺克斯的建议考虑不周，显示幼稚。