My somewhat cursory read of Madoff was that he tarbabied himself. He had been running a successful investment company, but hit losses.
The good, and lawful, thing to do would have been to come clean at that point. He didn't, and his downfall began there.
Instead he did the bad, and illegal, thing: doubled down and paid off the small number of exiting investors with new investor's deposits, whilst lying about returns.
If you've read John Kenneth Galbraith's The Great Crash: 1929 (a short and highly readable account), you'll find a very familar story in Madoff. He fell prey to what JKG calls "the bezzle".
The good, and lawful, thing to do would have been to come clean at that point. He didn't, and his downfall began there.
Instead he did the bad, and illegal, thing: doubled down and paid off the small number of exiting investors with new investor's deposits, whilst lying about returns.
If you've read John Kenneth Galbraith's The Great Crash: 1929 (a short and highly readable account), you'll find a very familar story in Madoff. He fell prey to what JKG calls "the bezzle".