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Filthy Rich

a Powerful Billionaire, the Sex Scandal That Undid Him, and All the Justice That Money Can Buy : the Shocking True Story of Jeffrey Epstein
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Before there was Bernie Madoff, there was Steven Hoffenberg. In 1987, Hoffenberg was the head of Towers Financial Corporation, a company that bought debts, such as unpaid medical bills, at a very steep discount while pressing the debtors to repay in full. === In the 1980’s, several major financial players were involved in the greenmailing of publicly trade companies. What greenmailing means, in practice, is that a brokerage house or group of investors will start buying shares in companies that seem to be vulnerable to takeover attempts. To ward off the attempts, executives at those companies will buy the shares back at a premium. === To cover his tracks, Hoffenberg had been taking money from investors and using it to pay previous investors. It was a classic Ponzi scheme – one of the biggest in history – and Hoffenberg ended up spending nineteen years in a federal prison.