Madoff and accountability

The past few weeks have been filled with the travails of Bernie Madoff, a US financier who created the largest Ponzi scheme in history and defrauded millions of about $ 50 billion. Among those he defrauded was his family-- neither his wife of 40 years nor his sons who were senior officers in the company claimed to know what Madoff did. He admitted to his crimes to his sons and not to the authorities and was able to obtain bail and thus remain enconsed in his $ 7 million penthouse in downtown Manhattan, even attempting to post some jewellery and money to his family while under house arrest. He has yet to make a public apology.

About the same time, Raju, the chairman of Satyam, a computer company in India, was also admitting to defrauding his company of $ 1 billion. He had been falsifying the company records for a number of years showing profits where none existed. He however claimed that he had not made any money and had not sold any stocks during this period. He issued an apology in his formal letter to the secuirity exchange commission and submitted his resignation from the company while absolving all others on the board of any knowledge of his peccadilos.

A third was Rene-Thierry, 65, who was found dead at his desk in the New York office of Access International Advisors on Tuesday, both of his wrists slashed. A box cutter and a bottle of sleeping pills lay nearby. Police say it was a suicide. He had invested in Madoff funds. He felt that inadvertently he had defrauded his customers who relied on his reputation to put money in his hands. He too issued an apology and then committed suicide.

At this time, Rene has committed suicide, Raju is in jail while Maddow-- well he is in his penthouse. Why is there such a different reaction? Is it cultural ? Why did Rene decide that the honorable thing was to committ suicide like "seppukku" in Japan ? Why did Raju decide to write a long letter explaining why he did what he did,exculpating his colleauges and stressing that he personally did not profit from his action ? And why did Madoff feel that he was not accountable and that hiring a bunch of lawyers was an acceptable approach and that sending money to his family after he had ruined countless friends and family members was in line with his religious beliefs ? Some of the organizations he ruined were charities ?

I find this lack of contritiion strange.........