Bernard L. Madoff is in the news again nearly two years after his death thanks to a new Netflix documentary that features interviews with Pensions & Investments' Erin Arvedlund.
The series, "Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street," is directed by Joe Berlinger, a veteran helmer of true-crime documentaries such as "Conversations with a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes" and "Filthy Rich," and treats its subject not unlike the notorious serial killers Mr. Berlinger has profiled in the past.
Mr. Madoff was charged with securities fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission in late 2008 and pleaded guilty in March 2009 to defrauding clients in hedge funds managed by his eponymous firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, of well over $50 billion, marking the largest financial fraud of all time.
That June, he was sentenced to the maximum 150 years in prison, where he died in April 2021.
Ms. Arvedlund, who joined P&I in the newly created role of enterprise editor in October, has had a long history as an investigative reporter and in 2009 wrote the book "Too Good to be True: The Rise and Fall of Bernie Madoff."
"I had written a story for Barron's magazine about Madoff's hedge fund in May 2001," Ms. Arvedlund said. "I did not expose him by any means. I just had heard he had this amazing hedge fund that never lost money and had enviable returns with a steady Sharpe ratio and I wrote the story and nothing happened."
After Madoff's fraud was exposed, Barron's publisher asked Ms. Arvedlund to expand her article in the book. That book led to her appearance in Mr. Berlinger's documentary.
Her interview, filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic in a studio in Jersey City, N.J., has brought new attention to her history with the Madoff fraud.
"For one thing, I think my parents finally understand what I do," she said. "I'm still waiting on the whistle-blower millions. … I've also heard from some of the victims and a lot of them are saying there are some parallels with Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX."
