麦道夫闹剧远未谢幕

    上周五，彼得•B.麦道夫认罪之时试图推卸责任，把自己描述成一个“小兄弟”，一个被老兄伯尼的才智、恩惠和威势所蒙蔽的受害者，但是人们对此深表怀疑。

    3年半之前，伯纳德•L.麦道夫长达20年之久的庞氏骗局曝光，而直到现在，这个华尔街历史上最大的骗局中涉及的家族闹剧仍未完结。2009年3月12日，麦道夫对所有联邦指控认罪，最终被判150年监禁。现在，该轮到配角登场了。

    实际上，彼得的辩护可以看作是他的女儿沙娜•麦道夫•斯旺森及其侄儿安德鲁（伯纳德唯一在世的儿子）辩护的预演。他们很快也会被检察官拉到聚光灯下，供大众消遣。如果伯尼和彼得的认罪表演能给他们带来启示，麦道夫兄妹将会使用某种版本的“老爸犯错，我不知情”的故事来为自己辩护，这样他们有望得到只有五年刑期的认罪协议，比如一项逃税指控。

    虽然没有直接点名，联邦检察官普里特•巴拉拉还是把矛头指向了麦道夫兄妹，他宣称：“我们还没有完成任务，必须把麦道夫史无前例的骗局和导致受害人遭受巨大痛苦的所有责任人绳之以法。”多数法庭观察家都认为，他不是指正在等待审判的5名前雇员，也不是8名已认罪并等待宣判的雇员和合伙人。

    “检察官为此花费了大量时间，”哥伦比亚大学（Columbia University）法律教授约翰•科菲解释说。“他们已经摘下了低悬的成熟果实，现在正在往上够，瞄准中间的果实…除了那两兄妹，我不知道他们的手还会伸多远。”

    彼得是麦道夫公司的前任首席合规官，他供认了长达十年的文件伪造行为，旨在逃避数以千万计的税款，并帮助伯纳德•L.麦道夫投资证券公司（Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, BLMIS）规避证券交易委员会（Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC）的审查。

    彼得•麦道夫在其17分钟的认罪供词（通常是被告预先写好的简短发言，用以向法官承认罪行）中把自己的文件伪造解释为取悦兄长的行为。“有几次，我的兄长和我一起采用特定的手法转移资金，目的就是为了逃税，”他交待。“我知道这不对。此外，在我的要求下，我的妻子在BLMIS领取工资，多年以来只是吃空饷。然而我从未怀疑过我的兄长窃取他人钱财，也未曾想过我和我的家人的薪酬直接来自于客户的资金。”

    面对地方法官劳拉-泰勒•斯韦恩，麦道夫坚持说在年长七岁的兄长的威压之下，他过得很辛苦，而且直到2008年12月都对庞氏骗局一无所知。“毫无疑问，伯尼才是老板，”彼得从高中就开始给兄长打工，最开始不过是草坪自动洒水器的业务，历年来他已经得到1.5亿美元的报酬，不过他依然心怀不满：“伯尼从来不给我公司的股份。”

    两个小麦道夫都在公司担任重要职位，检察官也证实他们直接从公司得到数百万美元。作为公司高层，他们的行为都可能构成刑事犯罪。不过目前为止，他们受到的公开指控仅限于麦道夫的破产托管人埃尔文•皮卡德提起的民事诉讼，皮卡德正在寻求向麦道夫家族追索超过2.55亿美元。

    As Peter B. Madoff pleaded guilty last Friday, he tried to sell a doubting world the "Baby Brother" defense, painting himself as a victim, blinded by his big brother Bernie's brilliance, beneficence and bullying.

    Three and a half years after the world learned of Bernard L. Madoff's 20-year Ponzi scheme, the Greek saga underlying the largest fraud in Wall Street history is not quite over. On March 12, 2009, Mr. Madoff pleaded guilty to all the federal charges filed against him, eventually receiving a 150-year prison term. Now, the supporting cast is having its turn.

    In effect, his brother Peter's defense was a preview of the one his daughter, Shana Madoff Swanson, and his nephew, Andrew, Bernie's surviving son, may soon be offering for public consumption as prosecutors drag them into the spotlight. If the guilty plea performances by Bernie and Peter instruct them, the younger Madoffs will be offering variations of the "Daddy Done Me Wrong and Kept Me in the Dark" defense as they hope for deals that might carry only five-year sentences, such as a one-count charge of tax evasion.

    Without naming Shana or Andrew, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara upped the heat on them, declaring: "We are not yet finished calling to account everyone responsible for the epic fraud of Bernard Madoff and the epic pain of his many victims." Few court observers believe the prosecutor was referring to the five former employees still awaiting trial or the eight employees and associates who have pleaded guilty and mostly await sentencing.

    "The prosecutors have spent a lot of time on this," explains Columbia University Law Professor John Coffee. "They have done the low-hanging fruit; they are now reaching to the medium-level fruit… Beyond the two kids, I do not know how much farther they will want to go."

    Peter, the former Chief Compliance Officer of the Madoff enterprise, confessed to a decade's worth of fabricating documents designed to evade tens of millions in taxes and to help Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities (BLMIS) evade Securities and Exchange Commission scrutiny.

    During his 17-minute allocution -- the often-scripted little speech defendants give to tell the judge they are sorry -- Peter Madoff explained his falsification of documents as a function of trying to please his brother. "On several occasions, my brother and I engaged in money transfers in ways specifically designed to avoid payment of taxes," he said. "I knew this was wrong. In addition, at my request, my wife was placed on the BLMIS payroll and for many years received compensation for a no-show job. At no time, however, did I suspect that my brother had stolen from anyone or that my family and I were receiving money that belonged to customers."

    Madoff insisted to U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain that he had labored under the handicap of being seven years younger than Bernie and kept clueless about the Ponzi scheme until December 2008. "There was no doubt Bernie was the boss," said the younger brother who had started working for the elder's lawn sprinkler business in high school and collected more than $150 million over the course of their working relationship. "He never gave me any financial interest in the firm."

    Both junior Madoffs -- Shana and Andrew -- held significant jobs at the firm, while collecting millions of dollars that prosecutors can prove came directly from criminal enterprise. Each, as senior officers of the firm, may have committed acts that could be classified as criminal. So far, many of the allegations against them have been made public only in the civil complaints filed by Madoff bankruptcy trustee Irving Picard, who seeks to recover more than $255 million from the Madoff family.