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The Greatest Depression | 12/18/2008 3:00 pm

An Aerial Tour of the Homes of Bernie Madoff and the Bailed-Out Bankers

So where did all that money go? Here, via VirtualGlobeTrotting.com, citizen journalists provide a peek behind the purported gates of greed

Photo Essay

As our former middle class prepares for America’s first All Wal-Mart Christmas, we decided to search for aerial and satellite glimpses of the extraordinary Hampton haciendas, Greenwich getaways and DC domains that belong to the Big Boyz of finance, at least according to the community members/citizen journalists of Virtual Globetrotting.

Yes, whether they ran banks that now need billions in taxpayer bailouts to survive, or sold mortgages to those who were never able to pay, or in the case of Bernie Madoff, were alleged Ponzi schemers, the question remains … where did all that money go?

From the look of these places, their firms may have made risky bets with leveraged money, but the bonuses they paid themselves?

Those dollars were real.

53 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

mary lou s
what about the money gone from my 401k? was that money REAL, too?
By mary lou s on 12/18/2008 2:19 pm
gulliver fourmyle
not much good to say of my father—-but he really helped make good hydrogen bombs—-mom has framed docus from truman, etc.,thanking him for helping to nuke the japs, end the war—-the kicker is he was xferred from Hanford to ‘the savannah river’ nuke site—-then the AEC ‘priveitized’ it to GE, then Dupont got it—-Bamm! most nuke engineers all ‘laid-off’ only months prior to expected ‘pensions’—-‘severance-check’ and adios—-if my family was bonkers before, this really pushed them ‘over-the-edge’—- in an age of no ‘welfare’ or other ‘safety-net’—-what-to-hell is a busted nuke-maker to do? yep—-pump gas for $1/hour—-the shock really finished a family off—-while they were 90% nutz, as it were, that deal was the ‘coup-de-grace’—-now they were 200% nutz—-destroyed a a solid middle-class family—-before pop vanished, he did explain remorse for nuking japanese cities, of no military use—-and said both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were ‘saved’ as ‘test-subjects’, as they were ‘flat’—- any fool should see the ‘nips’ would have quit quick if the 1st bomb were dropped 30 miles from Tokyo harbor—-before the jap-guv had time to consider, we blast another city—-war crime? yeah—-revenge? not really—-rather an example for the Huge Russian army, that easily could have taken all of Europe—-politics kills—- for you, me, anyone to expect ‘fair-deals’ vs. lost 401ks neglects our history—-violent, exploitive, and fueled by ‘the love of money’ vs. people—-as Joni Mitchel notes ‘raised-on-robbery’—-so far, the American way—-you may change that—-not easily—-but you vastly outnumber ‘the masters’—-violent rebel action is not do-able—-nor wise—-but ya can raise hell via ‘spending’—-or rather ‘not-spending’—- you’re not alone in being robbed—-happens frequently—-your best chance is ‘don’t buy anything, save absolute need’—-that will bring your ‘masters’ to their knees—-and a consumer revolution avoids violence—-yet it should work—-
By gulliver fourmyle on 12/18/2008 10:40 pm
Agyness O
And, we thought we should fear Al Queda………………………..how naive.
By Agyness O on 12/18/2008 2:23 pm
Frannie Em
Agyness I’ll bet Osama Bin Landen is laughing his head off, and pointing his finger saying “look what those stupid greedy infidels did to themselves, I told you so.”
By Frannie Em on 12/18/2008 7:15 pm
Rick Masters
This comment has been deleted as it has violated our Ten Commandments of Posting.
By Rick Masters on 12/18/2008 2:30 pm
tommy lee brown
love the slide shows….what we have here is legalized fraud….boyz in the jail should be the next follow up slide show…tom
By tommy lee brown on 12/18/2008 2:35 pm
Lady Gator
Ol’ Bernie Madoff picked the best place for “Ripe Pickin’s”. You really have to wonder about some of the folks in Palm Beach. Can’t understand how to fill out a ballot - don’t understand a con man who looks like a used car salesman. What next for these folks?
By Lady Gator on 12/18/2008 2:53 pm
Sherrie Crews
And, we thought we should fear Al Queda………………………..how naive” By agyness on 12/18/2008 3:23 pm Yeah, maybe that could be called a WMD (Weapon of Mass Distraction). While we were busy worrying about Homeland Security the Bush corporate and financial cronies were busy ripping off our Financial Security.
By Sherrie Crews on 12/18/2008 2:59 pm
Brian Williams
Sherrie, none of the peole mentioned here are Bush cronies. These guys hate Bush. Madoff is/was one of the largest Democrat donors and fundraisers. Come on, there is plently of issues you can argue are Bush’s fault, but this is pure greed, and trying to tie it to Bush just highlights how the media has taught you to think….Blame Bush, all the while this faud is happening right under our noses.
By Brian Williams on 12/18/2008 4:50 pm
Agyness O
Brian, I am not talking democrat or republican here and I don’t think Sherry is either. We are talking the people we elected as in all of government ( the presidency and congress ) to take care of us. The constitution has been shredded, large corporations are in control and our congress has allowed it! We have been terrorized from within and there is plenty of blame to go around. Forget politics………
By Agyness O on 12/18/2008 5:58 pm
Agyness O
Pardon…need I add all of Wall Street??
By Agyness O on 12/18/2008 6:00 pm
Frannie Em
Agyness You said good. Yes, both sides, repubs and dems got contributions from all of those organizations. It is all so incestuous. People work the SEC, yet they came from Wall Street. Or they work at Treasury, and then go back to Wall Street and back and forth. They have a revolving door system, mostly run by men.
By Frannie Em on 12/18/2008 7:19 pm
Diana T
Poor Bernie. Had to post his $10 million bond and is under “house arrest” with an ankle bracelet at his $7Million penthouse over on Park Ave. He has to stay there all the way from 9 at night to 6 0r 7 in the a.m. I think I am more angry about this than the whole Wall St. debacle so far. How many retired couples who thought that, while not being super wealthy, they were set and prepared to take care of themselves into their old age with perhaps some left over for the kids? And, in the period of a couple of hours this past Friday, they suddenly find they’ve got nothing. I can’t imagine the trauma; my parents did this back in the 70’s, and were able to live in relative comfort, and when the time came for the nursing home, they could handle it. I just keep thinking about all the retirees that trusted him and he shafted. If the SEC knew about the danger signals for years in regards to this guy, what other kinds of horror stories are they keeping from us? Has there ever been money where we’ve been told it is? Or, is it all resting nicely in the Caymans and in Switzerland??
By Diana T on 12/18/2008 2:59 pm
f p
He needs to be in the slam Di—house arrest my ass- that galls. As for the money the Feds need to take on this people and strip them of their ill-gotten wealth. This is wrong to have him out on the street daily whilst many many people were robbed by him. What’s the difference between him and a bank robber—zilch. Throw him in the slam and throw away the key.
By f p on 12/18/2008 3:25 pm
Frannie Em
Frank I heard that Fuld’s wife, who has a very large art collection, is having to sell it, and liquidate a lot of assets. I think it is happening to many of them. The Charities that had him invest are just emptied now, what can they do. All the people that depend on them. UGH!!!! and BLECK!!!
By Frannie Em on 12/18/2008 7:24 pm