2021年经济学人 华尔街巨骗伯纳德·麦道夫在狱中去世(2)

Happy because, in that mysterious office, he was carrying on the biggest Ponzi scheme in history. It was simplicity¹ itself. The money sent to him by new investors² was used to pay existing investors, as well as any redemptions (which he honoured in full and promptly).

开心是因为，在那间神秘的办公室里，他正在实施史上最大的庞氏骗局。这场骗局很简单。拿新投资者的钱支付给之前的投资者，以及进行任何形式的赎回(他立即全额兑现)。

Some was also diverted into beach houses for him and the family in Long Island and Cap d’Antibes, and into trips to Las Vegas for the accounts manager. The money flowed round and round in a delightfully³ circular way.

他挪用部分资金为家人购置了位于长岛(Long Island)和昂蒂布海角(Cap d’antibes)的海滨别墅，以及支付客户经理往返拉斯维加斯的开销。资金流以一种令人愉快的方式循环起来。

And there was plenty of it: by 2001 he was managing billions, and his clients included Tufts and Yeshiva universities (he was a trustee of Yeshiva), hsbc, Nomura, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Steven Spielberg, John Malkovich and several Jewish charities.

他的客户包括塔夫茨大学和叶史瓦大学(他是叶史瓦大学的受托人)、汇丰银行、野村证券、苏格兰皇家银行、史蒂文·斯皮尔伯格、约翰·马尔科维奇和几个犹太慈善机构。

As a Jewish boy from Queens, he had a special interest in helping⁴ such causes, as he told Elie Wiesel, the Nobel peace prizewinner, over dinner once.

作为一个来自皇后区的犹太男孩，他对帮助这些事业有着特殊的兴趣，他在与诺贝尔和平奖得主埃利·威塞尔(Elie Wiesel)共进晚餐时提到过这一点。

Wiesel’s foundation invested $15.2m with him, and lost it all—as did almost 5,000 other investors, most of them ordinary elderly folk, who lost a total of $64.8bn on paper and around $20bn in hard, and hard-earned, cash. That money was still being recovered on the day he died.

威塞尔基金一共投资了1520万美元，结果血本无归——其他近5000名投资者(多数为普通的老年人)的账面损失总计为648亿美元，而辛苦赚来的现金损失约为200亿美元。那笔钱在他去世的那天还在追回。

No trades were ever made with it. It went straight to him and to the scheme. Meanwhile he trusted a tiny band of employees to insert fake trades into customer statements, based on his own best calculations of how share prices had moved. If inspectors⁵ asked for records he could not immediately produce, these too would be fresh-made and, if too suspiciously warm from the printer, cooled in the office fridge.

这些资金并未用来进行交易。而是直接流进了他的口袋和骗局。与此同时，他指示一小群员工，根据他对股价走势的最佳计算，在客户的报表中插入虚假交易。如果检查人员要求他出示一些无法立即出示的记录时，这些记录也可以现场打印出来，如果怕被人发现记录还热乎着，可以放在办公室的冰箱里冷却一下。

1 simplicity   

n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯

参考例句：

• She dressed with elegant simplicity.她穿着朴素高雅。
• The beauty of this plan is its simplicity.简明扼要是这个计划的一大特点。

2 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

3 delightfully   

大喜，欣然

参考例句：

• The room is delightfully appointed. 这房子的设备令人舒适愉快。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The evening is delightfully cool. 晚间凉爽宜人。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

5 inspectors   

n.检查员( inspector的名词复数 )；（英国公共汽车或火车上的）查票员；（警察）巡官；检阅官

参考例句：

• They got into the school in the guise of inspectors. 他们假装成视察员进了学校。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Inspectors checked that there was adequate ventilation. 检查员已检查过，通风良好。 来自《简明英汉词典》