Bernie Madoff snookered a Merrill Lynch wealth-management vice president with a smooth line of bullshit in a face-to-face meeting in July 2008, resulting in a total wipeout of a $33 million investment with Madoff, according to allegations in a lawsuit filed in Palm Beach, Florida.

It was only five months before Madoff's scheme collapsed when he explained his investment strategy to the Merrill guy and the MorseLife Foundation, which helps seniors with housing and health care. And it worked like a charm: The Merrill guy advised MorseLife to keep its money with Bernie. And we know how that turned out.

Not that Merrill itself invested any money with Bernie; it didn't. As the Palm Beach Post's Kathleen Chapman reports, MorseLife claims that Merrill, which advertised itself as the "world's premier provider of wealth management," should have warned MorseLife to withdraw its money.

Instead, the adviser, who was performinhg due diligence, told MorseLife, the suit claims, that "the Madoff Portfolo was a conservative investment as opposed to a hedge fund or other alternative investment."