[sgbuffett]

As I understand they managed to recover a large part of the money already.

Many times in white colar crimes the perpetrator often bury the consequences of his actions and avoid thinking about it....and hence carry on enlarging the magnitude.

To me and this is just my opinion. Madoff committed a heinous crime but I don't believe he Is the evil greedy character that the media made him out to be. I also don't belive he started scam but slowly his fund started to cover up bit by bit turn into a scam.