In the mid-1960s, Bernard Madoff tapped money from Jewish businessmen at local country clubs with the help of small-time middlemen. Entire families bought into the promise of a guaranteed return. He then set his sights on Europe and Latin America, brokering deals with powerful hedge fund managers and feeder funds from Buenos Aires to Zurich. Billions of dollars were channeled to the secretive 17th floor of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities in New York's Lipstick Building. As fast as Madoff was turning a profit, his feeders were becoming fabulously wealthy raking in fees worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The competition wondered how the man could turn a steady profit in good and bad times. Allegations came and went about the possibility Madoff was "front-running" or operating a Ponzi scheme. The SEC investigated Madoff for over three decades. Some of his associates were reprimanded; some of his feeders were shut down. But Madoff remained untouched. The SEC even gave regular tours of Madoff's "exemplary" operation to new SEC recruits and interns. It ended on December 11, 2008, with Madoff admitting that it was all "one big lie." Award-winning FRONTLINE producers Martin Smith and Marcela Gaviria unravel the story behind the world's first global fraud-a deception that lasted longer, reached wider, and cut deeper than any other business scandal in history.

Running Time: 58 mins

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