Meanwhile, as Eleanor Squillari tells Vanity Fair, Bernie was in his office in the Lipstick Building in Midtown Manhattan barking orders to distance the firm from Avellino & Bienes - even as most of A&B's clients moved directly to Madoff’s firm in the wake of the SEC crackdown.

Telling Squillari to expect lots of calls from new clients, Madoff suggested the SEC action was due to “something stupid, an accounting glitch.”

Bernie continued: “I don’t know want the whole world knowing about this, so don’t repeat what goes on in here,” recalled Squillari. “I don’t want to be associated with a firm that was shut down by the SEC, because my reputation is my business.” He ordered her not to utter the names Avellino & Bienes again, and to refer to them only as “A” and “B.”

Then there’ s Frontline quizzing Sandra Manzke, an expensively tailored Connecticut woman whose firm, MAXAM Capital Management, lost $280 million with Bernie. Before MAXAM, Manzke founded a hedge fund called Tremont Capital Management, which was later sold to Oppenheimer Acquisition Corp. & Co.; it lost $3.3 billion with Madoff.

Manzke’s public persona included her campaigning for more disclosure to hedge fund investors as she retailed her due-diligence skills. Yet while she admits telling her investors -- as a selling point -- that money was being invested with Madoff, she agreed to Madoff’s demand for no disclosure in public documents.

Smith: “Did Madoff say to you, 'Don't put me in your prospectus?' "

Manzke: “Yes. He did. “

Smith: “Do you think that's right? Do you think that's appropriate?”

Manzke: “Umm, I don't know. Every one of my clients knew that this was a Madoff feeder fund. And -"

Smith: “So why not put it in a prospectus then?”

Manzke: “Umm, that was one of, always, Bernie's conditions of getting an account.”

That's one of my favorite phrases in this whole story: “Bernie’s conditions.” That’s a good one. “Bernie’s conditions” really meant he was in charge of the robbery - and if you wanted to share the loot, you just shut up and did what he told you.