Man, I watched part 1 tonight on Netflix.

What a crazy story, truly fascinating to see the profession of the scheme and his mannerisms throughout. Didn't realize that the scheme basically formed from his beginnings in the FiL's office. Crazy stuff

It's a pretty good look at the whole thing. I didn't realize how bad he really was for so long.

Good show. I've seen good in-depth analysis/shows of how he pulled it off but it's always mostly focused on the final 20 years or so. Agree with the OP that this one had some great detail into the very beginning of his career.

I also thought the very end did a great job of pinning down what I think the underlying cause of all of it was -> he had to be adored by everyone. This is one the reasons why I think his sons really didn't know. If he brought them in, he loses that adoration.

The businesses were extremely separate, and the scam was shockingly simple. Never trade. Just deposit "investments" into a JPMC account and pay "distributions" out of it. No trades. No actual complexity. Just one main shady helper and a couple of others to create fake statements, abetted by govt morons who never actually dug into anything

i cannot imagine losing my whole nest egg then having the executor guy tell you that you owe money to the people who didn't withdraw as much.