Madoff Multiplied

The lead article in today’s New York Times, “$19 Billion Suit Accuses Banker in Madoff Case,” shows how pervasive the greed runs in this entire matter. In addition to revealing a potential partner of Bernie Madoff, Sonja Kohn, a prominent Austrian banker, it describes a series of civil lawsuits by a trustee of the fund, Irving Picard, who is trying to recover up to $50 billion in the matter.

The lawsuits come as a filing deadline approaches two years after Bernie Madoff’s arrest. And while Mr. Picard’s motives are commendable, recovering funds for Bernie Madoff’s victims, the article strikes me for the pervasiveness of money in the entire matter.

If the accusations are true, Sonja Kohn was a central component of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. As the article notes, any Ponzi scheme needs a constant fresh infusion of cash in order to survive, and Ms. Kohn was the key to supplying it. She was a well-connected banker and could guide many affluent people to invest in Mr. Madoff’s funds. She allegedly received yearly kickbacks for her role, totalling more than $6.5 million per year.

It strikes me as particularly poignant that this story is breaking in the middle of the Christmas season. How true is Jesus’s saying that you can not worship both God and mammon (money).