Deborah and Gerald Strober are the authors of oral histories of the Kennedy, Nixon, and Reagan presidencies and of oral biographies of Queen Elizabeth II, the Dalai Lama, Billy Graham, and Rudy Giuliani. Their latest book, Israel at Sixty, was published in February 2008. The Strobers live in New York and in Herzliya-by-the-Sea, Israel.

THE REAL STORY OF BERNARD "BERNIE" MADOFF AND THE PONZI SCHEME THAT ROCKED THE WORLD

In December 2008, amidst a world gripped by financial crisis, Bernard Madoff, a respected fund manager, and former chairman of NASDAQ, was arrested by the FBI for reportedly bilking thousands of trusting investors out of $50 billion.

In the first comprehensive account of this financial mastermind's epic Ponzi scheme, Catastrophe exposes the real story behind Madoff's upstanding façade—his confession, his family's involvement, and his unlikely rise and incredible crash. With first-hand victim accounts detailing the personal and business effects of the disastrous crime, the book peels back Madoff's persona layer by layer, revealing how he developed his elaborate deceit, and how and why, ironically, he targeted and scammed the world of Jewish philanthropy.

Through interviews with Madoff's friends and colleagues, the authors draw a picture of Madoff from his ability to use his easy-going charm and country-club sociability to gain entry into influential circles to his Machiavellian financial acumen capable of building and sustaining a towering fraud. Catastrophe defines and explains the whole debacle—how he seduced and persuaded sophisticated investors, how he eluded SEC watchdogs for years, and how his far-reaching crime has affected the world.

Complete with the famous whistle-blower letter to the SEC, a list of victims, SEC filings and more, Catastrophe offers a complete look at the white-collar crime of the century that will leave the reader both astounded and in disbelief.