????上周五，彼得?B.麥道夫認(rèn)罪之時試圖推卸責(zé)任，把自己描述成一個“小兄弟”，一個被老兄伯尼的才智、恩惠和威勢所蒙蔽的受害者，但是人們對此深表懷疑。

????3年半之前，伯納德?L.麥道夫長達(dá)20年之久的龐氏騙局曝光，而直到現(xiàn)在，這個華爾街歷史上最大的騙局中涉及的家族鬧劇仍未完結(jié)。2009年3月12日，麥道夫?qū)λ新?lián)邦指控認(rèn)罪，最終被判150年監(jiān)禁。現(xiàn)在，該輪到配角登場了。

????實(shí)際上，彼得的辯護(hù)可以看作是他的女兒沙娜?麥道夫?斯旺森及其侄兒安德魯（伯納德唯一在世的兒子）辯護(hù)的預(yù)演。他們很快也會被檢察官拉到聚光燈下，供大眾消遣。如果伯尼和彼得的認(rèn)罪表演能給他們帶來啟示，麥道夫兄妹將會使用某種版本的“老爸犯錯，我不知情”的故事來為自己辯護(hù)，這樣他們有望得到只有五年刑期的認(rèn)罪協(xié)議，比如一項(xiàng)逃稅指控。

????雖然沒有直接點(diǎn)名，聯(lián)邦檢察官普里特?巴拉拉還是把矛頭指向了麥道夫兄妹，他宣稱：“我們還沒有完成任務(wù)，必須把麥道夫史無前例的騙局和導(dǎo)致受害人遭受巨大痛苦的所有責(zé)任人繩之以法。”多數(shù)法庭觀察家都認(rèn)為，他不是指正在等待審判的5名前雇員，也不是8名已認(rèn)罪并等待宣判的雇員和合伙人。

????“檢察官為此花費(fèi)了大量時間，”哥倫比亞大學(xué)（Columbia University）法律教授約翰?科菲解釋說。“他們已經(jīng)摘下了低懸的成熟果實(shí)，現(xiàn)在正在往上夠，瞄準(zhǔn)中間的果實(shí)…除了那兩兄妹，我不知道他們的手還會伸多遠(yuǎn)。”

????彼得是麥道夫公司的前任首席合規(guī)官，他供認(rèn)了長達(dá)十年的文件偽造行為，旨在逃避數(shù)以千萬計(jì)的稅款，并幫助伯納德?L.麥道夫投資證券公司（Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, BLMIS）規(guī)避證券交易委員會（Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC）的審查。

????彼得?麥道夫在其17分鐘的認(rèn)罪供詞（通常是被告預(yù)先寫好的簡短發(fā)言，用以向法官承認(rèn)罪行）中把自己的文件偽造解釋為取悅兄長的行為。“有幾次，我的兄長和我一起采用特定的手法轉(zhuǎn)移資金，目的就是為了逃稅，”他交待。“我知道這不對。此外，在我的要求下，我的妻子在BLMIS領(lǐng)取工資，多年以來只是吃空餉。然而我從未懷疑過我的兄長竊取他人錢財(cái)，也未曾想過我和我的家人的薪酬直接來自于客戶的資金。”

????面對地方法官勞拉-泰勒?斯韋恩，麥道夫堅(jiān)持說在年長七歲的兄長的威壓之下，他過得很辛苦，而且直到2008年12月都對龐氏騙局一無所知。“毫無疑問，伯尼才是老板，”彼得從高中就開始給兄長打工，最開始不過是草坪自動灑水器的業(yè)務(wù)，歷年來他已經(jīng)得到1.5億美元的報(bào)酬，不過他依然心懷不滿：“伯尼從來不給我公司的股份。”

????兩個小麥道夫都在公司擔(dān)任重要職位，檢察官也證實(shí)他們直接從公司得到數(shù)百萬美元。作為公司高層，他們的行為都可能構(gòu)成刑事犯罪。不過目前為止，他們受到的公開指控僅限于麥道夫的破產(chǎn)托管人埃爾文?皮卡德提起的民事訴訟，皮卡德正在尋求向麥道夫家族追索超過2.55億美元。

????As Peter B. Madoff pleaded guilty last Friday, he tried to sell a doubting world the "Baby Brother" defense, painting himself as a victim, blinded by his big brother Bernie's brilliance, beneficence and bullying.

????Three and a half years after the world learned of Bernard L. Madoff's 20-year Ponzi scheme, the Greek saga underlying the largest fraud in Wall Street history is not quite over. On March 12, 2009, Mr. Madoff pleaded guilty to all the federal charges filed against him, eventually receiving a 150-year prison term. Now, the supporting cast is having its turn.

????In effect, his brother Peter's defense was a preview of the one his daughter, Shana Madoff Swanson, and his nephew, Andrew, Bernie's surviving son, may soon be offering for public consumption as prosecutors drag them into the spotlight. If the guilty plea performances by Bernie and Peter instruct them, the younger Madoffs will be offering variations of the "Daddy Done Me Wrong and Kept Me in the Dark" defense as they hope for deals that might carry only five-year sentences, such as a one-count charge of tax evasion.

????Without naming Shana or Andrew, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara upped the heat on them, declaring: "We are not yet finished calling to account everyone responsible for the epic fraud of Bernard Madoff and the epic pain of his many victims." Few court observers believe the prosecutor was referring to the five former employees still awaiting trial or the eight employees and associates who have pleaded guilty and mostly await sentencing.

????"The prosecutors have spent a lot of time on this," explains Columbia University Law Professor John Coffee. "They have done the low-hanging fruit; they are now reaching to the medium-level fruit… Beyond the two kids, I do not know how much farther they will want to go."

????Peter, the former Chief Compliance Officer of the Madoff enterprise, confessed to a decade's worth of fabricating documents designed to evade tens of millions in taxes and to help Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities (BLMIS) evade Securities and Exchange Commission scrutiny.

????During his 17-minute allocution -- the often-scripted little speech defendants give to tell the judge they are sorry -- Peter Madoff explained his falsification of documents as a function of trying to please his brother. "On several occasions, my brother and I engaged in money transfers in ways specifically designed to avoid payment of taxes," he said. "I knew this was wrong. In addition, at my request, my wife was placed on the BLMIS payroll and for many years received compensation for a no-show job. At no time, however, did I suspect that my brother had stolen from anyone or that my family and I were receiving money that belonged to customers."

????Madoff insisted to U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain that he had labored under the handicap of being seven years younger than Bernie and kept clueless about the Ponzi scheme until December 2008. "There was no doubt Bernie was the boss," said the younger brother who had started working for the elder's lawn sprinkler business in high school and collected more than $150 million over the course of their working relationship. "He never gave me any financial interest in the firm."

????Both junior Madoffs -- Shana and Andrew -- held significant jobs at the firm, while collecting millions of dollars that prosecutors can prove came directly from criminal enterprise. Each, as senior officers of the firm, may have committed acts that could be classified as criminal. So far, many of the allegations against them have been made public only in the civil complaints filed by Madoff bankruptcy trustee Irving Picard, who seeks to recover more than $255 million from the Madoff family.