The mini-Madoff of Brooklyn, and the customers who can't stop trusting him

In the course of the Bernie Madoff scandal, one of Warren Buffett's catchier quotes clamored endlessly through the echo chamber of money media: "When the tide goes out, you learn who's been swimming naked."

Now, with Madoff sitting in prison and the furor around his stolen billions starting to subside, a few lower-level scammers are jockeying to replace him as the new investor with no clothes. The Madoff of the moment is Philip Barry, a Brooklyn-based investment advisor who faces a host of charges for what's looking like a $40 million Ponzi scheme. But even as government investigators pore over his records, many of Barry's customers clearly aren't ready to give up on him.