As the modern fascination with true crime escalates, perhaps no documentarian today presents the stories of our past with more profundity than Joe Berlinger. The director’s next endeavor figures to hit home for not just millions of Americans but anti-fraud professionals around the world, too.
As the modern fascination with true crime escalates, perhaps no documentarian today presents the stories of our past with more profundity than Joe Berlinger. The Acadamy Award-nominated director boasts a filmography that includes “Brother’s Keeper,” the “Paradise Lost” trilogy and “Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru.” In recent years, Berlinger partnered with Netflix to create and direct the “Conversations with a Killer” documentary series that uses depositions from serial killers Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer to retell their gripping stories—a calling card of sorts that has become Berlinger’s style.
The director’s next endeavor figures to hit home for not just millions of Americans but anti-fraud professionals around the world, too.
“Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street” released on Netflix on January 4, 2023. The four-part series utilizes deposition footage of convicted fraudster Bernie Madoff, whose $64.8 billion Ponzi scheme came crashing down in 2008 after decades of illicit activity. Additionally, reenactments provide a dramatic effect to the story, a cast that includes actor Joseph Scotto portraying Madoff (who bears an uncanny resemblance to the infamous fraudster).
Testimonials include former Madoff employees, journalists, investors who saw their life savings vanish, and Harry Markopolos, the Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) whose allegations around Madoff’s fraudulent activity were dismissed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) despite multiple submissions by Markopolos over a 10-year span.
Ultimately, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison and died on April 14, 2021. Billions of dollars were gone, families saw their life savings disappear and lives were lost to suicide— only increasing the gravity of what occurred due to greed.
“Madoff was the scapegoat for the [2008] financial crisis,” Markopolos said in the series’ official trailer. “But in a blue-collar crime, the bodies drop before you investigate. In a white-collar crime, they drop afterwards.”
Buckle up: this new Netflix series is going to be a must-watch in 2023.
