No tears for Bernard Madoff

Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with Willard Foxton, whose father, William, took his own life when he learned that he’d lost all his money in Bernard Madoff’s financial scam. Listen

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LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins, and this is The World. Bernard Madoff has lost everything, his lavish lifestyle, the fabulous wealth, and now, his freedom. Today the disgraced financier was sentenced to 150 years in prison. That means the 71-year-old Madoff will probably spend the rest of his life behind bars. You’ll pardon Londoner Willard Foxton for showing little sympathy for Bernard Madoff. His father, a former British army officer, lost his life savings because of Madoff. Foxton says his dad was the perfect example of an innocent victim.

WILLARD FOXTON: My father actually had no idea he was a Madoff investor. He invested with a bank in Austria that reported to be a normal bank, and he invested into funds that they had, which were, he was told were diversified funds of funds. So, what he was told that they were invested across a wide variety of different hedge funds, and they were completely safe, and thought the returns were very, very modest. So, I think nobody expects a fraud in what is described to you as a financial product with modest return. So that’s how my father became involved with Bernie Madoff.

LISA MULLINS: We were, and you are Willard, talking about your dad in the past tense. Maybe you can tell us what happened to your dad.

WILLARD FOXTON: He shot himself on a park bench with his service pistol. Just before my father killed himself, about a week before, he sent me an email, and this was the first I knew about this, saying that he lost all of his money in these hedge funds that turned out to be Madoff hedge funds. And he was feeling very low and very depressed, and he might have to declare himself bankrupt. And my father lost his hand in combat, and had been to some of the most dangerous war zones in the world. So I must be honest, I wasn’t, I didn’t, I certainly didn’t think he was gonna kill himself. I knew he was upset, but obviously anyone who lost their life savings would be upset. So, it was a huge shock when he actually killed himself.

LISA MULLINS: For those who don’t know, what did your father do?

WILLARD FOXTON: My father was a highly decorated British soldier, and he’d served in almost, most of the combats any of the British army saw in between the 60′s and the 80′s, which is when he left the army. And, after leaving the British army, he was a humanitarian aid worker, and he worked for some of the most notable aid charities in the world. And he headed the European community monetary mission in the Vulcans, and testified against a number of war criminals. Was involved in investigating war crimes and mass graves, and that sort of thing. And also subsequent to that, was involved in reconstruct benefits in not only in the form of Yugoslavia, but also in Afghanistan as well.

LISA MULLINS: Well, the story has been made into a documentary film. This is the story of your own journey, here to the United States, and what you discovered. It’s a documentary made by the BBC called “The Madoff Hustle.” So Willard, when did you make, I mean, obviously the entire family is affected by this, but I wonder when you made it your mission to find out more about Bernard Madoff, and about other victims, including here in the United States?

WILLARD FOXTON: I’d been a journalist for a long time, but I’d never been a, what you call a serious journalist. I’d been a music and fashion journalist. But ultimately, I always felt if my father had been murdered, what he would have asked me to do was avenge him. And the only way I could do that is by publicizing his story, and letting people know that Bernie Madoff didn’t just steal money. He stole people’s lives, he stole people’s marriages, people’s businesses, people’s security.

LISA MULLINS: You’re equating what Bernard Madoff did with murder?

WILLARD FOXTON: I’m not saying he murdered my father, but what I am saying is that a crime on the scale of Bernie Madoff’s where you are stealing literally billions of dollars from ordinary, hard working people, inevitably has much greater repercussions than almost any other kind of crime.

LISA MULLINS: And the repercussions for you, I’m not sure if you have any siblings, if your mom is alive, but the repercussions have been what?

WILLARD FOXTON: Ultimately it has been absolutely devastating for family. We’ve obviously been hugely upset. I mean, my parents divorced when, in the early 80′s, and I didn’t really know my father growing up. So, I was really only just getting to know him. And as I got older, he’d been, we’d been in contact much more often, and I was really looking forward to him having a happier time and getting to know me much better. And also, he was very keen on spending time with his grandchildren, ’cause my sister has two children. And, yeah, he was looking for to a long and happy retirement. So I think that I’ve lost a father, my siblings have lost a father, and my niece and nephew have lost their grandfather.

LISA MULLINS: So tell us what you found here, especially starting in New York?

WILLARD FOXTON: Well, we came to New York and obviously it was quite difficult as a music and fashion journalist, to suddenly be walking and then talking to these huge players on Wall Street. But the common thread I found was that a lot of very, very intelligent people on Wall Street, when they had been younger, had questioned Bernie Madoff’s legitimacy. And, essentially they had sent the detail to the SCC, they had told other investors not to invest. They had done everything, they’d gone to journalists. They’d done everything they could to expose him, but so many people respected Bernie Madoff. He was so, such a well known philanthropist, he was such a pillar of the Jewish community, that people who spoke out against him were almost ostracized and vilified for attacking such a prominent and important person.

LISA MULLINS: Outside of New York you hit some other American cities, what was the purpose and what did you find?

WILLARD FOXTON: Well, we traveled all over America, really, to speak to other Madoff victims, and find out their stories. I think most particularly we spoke to a chap called Ian Thiermann who was in Ben Lomond, California. It’s hardly a city by anyone’s description. But he’s a 90-year-old man who’d invested his life savings in Madoff on a recommendation of a friend. And he’d already lost everything once, he’s lost everything in the great depression and he’d worked himself up into a millionaire by running a pest control business in LA. But he’d lost everything to Madoff. And unlike many of the Madoff victims I spoke to, who were just devastated and felt that their lives were over, Mr. Thiermann was hugely inspiring. Because rather than sitting around and being very upset about what happened, he had taken a job at the local supermarket, and he was working for $10 an hour. But he told me that working for $10 an hour was, made a huge difference at the end of the week. And also, the other thing that he said that was hugely inspiring was, I said to him, “Oh, so do you think you’re gonna end your days working at the supermarket?” And he said, “Oh no, no, no. I’m gonna save up $10,000 and then I’m gonna start my own business again, which I thought was much more encapsulating of this sort of America that I think is out there, than anything else.

LISA MULLINS: When you heard about the sentence today of Bernard Madoff, 150 years in prison, what was your own reaction?

WILLARD FOXTON: Well, I was very, very pleased, obviously. I suspected actually what would happen would be the sentence would be more in the realm of what the [INDISTINCTIVE], a functional life sentence for an old man of say, 20 years. But I think it was a very good thing that the New York court decided to send a symbolic message by giving Madoff the absolute maximum penalty. And I think it’s probably quite rare to hear a victim saying, no, I think ultimately, perhaps a sentence over 20 years is only of a symbolic value. I mean, I am pleased that he’s got that symbolic value. But I think as long as it was a functional life sentence where he isn’t gonna leave prison, I think that is what most victims will be very, very happy with that.

LISA MULLINS: You told us a little bit earlier in our discussion that if you’re father say, have been murdered, you know you would want to, and he would want you to avenge the murder. Do you feel with Madoff’s sentance today that his death, his suicide has now been avenged?

WILLARD FOXTON: I think regardless of whatever the sentence was, my vengeance on Bernie Madoff was really getting everyone to know my father’s name, because I think there had been far too much tarring of the Madoff victims, with the brush of being greedy or stupid. And I think putting my father’s name out there, is a man who’s perhaps a little naive, but basically an honorable and very decent man. Who represents, I think, the vast bulk of Madoff victims, was my revenge on Bernie Madoff, because it robbed the public of any sort of sympathy that they had, may have had for Madoff, in terms of the fact that, I think, when you have this idea that it’s only rich people stealing from other rich people, and oh no, I can’t buy a private jet this year, or I have to give up my yacht. And I think it doesn’t seem as serious a crime as a highly decorated soldier losing his life savings and killing himself. So I think ultimately my revenge on Bernie Madoff was making people realize that he was a little better than a petty criminal.

LISA MULLINS: Willard Foxton, thank you.

WILLARD FOXTON: Thank you very much.

LISA MULLINS: Willard Foxton’s father, William Foxton took his life after losing his savings to Bernard Madoff’s pawnsey scheme. Earlier today in New York, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for investment fraud.

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