I always like the NYMag articles about business/criminal business. This is my favorite one.

http://nymag.com/news/features/16653/

That was really good.

If you liked that, this is the only other "intellectual" type article about upper class drug use/abuse I've seen.

http://www.westword.com/2003-09-04/news/72-hour-party-people...

The "battle between Al Gore and George W. Bush"?

How old is this? Where the hell are the dates on these articles?

At least six years old - as it happens, he was convicted, and sentenced to almost 4 years in jail: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Madden

And he managed to continue getting paid in jail: http://www.slate.com/?id=2064214

I don't get those stories that span > 5 pages. Who has the time to read that stuff? They should at least provide a short summary somehow.

I don't get those novels that span > 200 pages. Who has the time to read that stuff?

I actually read a lot, but those newspaper stories annoy me, because the blow up a short message into so many lines. Why don't they just tell you on page one what his friends did to screw him over? Instead they describe the blue sky and the birds chirping and what the guy had for lunch.

The more words the story is the more the author gets paid or it had to be a certain number of words in the first place I suppose.

I liked the story, it seems this guy would have been successful and not in trouble if he had stayed away from promoting and manipulating penny stocks.

It is the basic story

1. He made something himself with almost no money 2. He borrowed enough to make some to sell 3. He sold them himself 4. People liked his product 5. He went on to expand and make more shoe products. 6. His company became large and successful

Only the bad part

7. His past actions came back to screw up his present success.

I was actually interested in the story, too, that is why it annoyed me that they made it so hard to read.

So what where his past actions? Is he really innocent? If so, how come he might still be sent to jail?

The two people that handled his IPO were a pump and dump firm. They are being prosecuted and they are testifying against everyone they know to try and save themselves. They claim that Steve Madden knew that his IPO was being manipulated and that he was guaranteed profit, even if the stock tanked. Steve Madden says he thought it was all legit.

It seems like Steve Madden, at the very least, unknowingly enabled these criminals, but it sounds like he will get off because the two testifying against him are incredibly unreliable witnesses.

EDIT: Didn't check the date. He pled guilty and went to jail.

Thanks for the summary ;-)

It's mostly that they want to put together an exciting story. They're not going for straight reporting. They're after drama and nuance, so there aren't considerations made for readers who just want the facts.

New Yorker isn't a newspaper, it's in between a digest and a magazine.

This is New York Magazine, The New Yorker's 5% less snobby competitor.

even if things go badly for Madden I wouldn't be surprised if he can pull off a James Cash Penney (founder of JC Penneys). I think Penney lost most of his money at around the same age as Madden and somehow he managed to earn it all back and then some...

> even if things go badly for Madden

They kind of did...

ok i meant rock bottom