NEW YORK – Convicted swindler Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison Monday for fraud so extensive that the judge said he needed to send a symbolic message to those who might imitate his fraud and to victims who need relief.
Applause broke out in the crowded Manhattan courtroom after U.S. District Judge Denny Chin issued the maximum sentence to the 71-year-old defendant, who said he sought no forgiveness and knew he must live “with this pain, this torment, for the rest of my life.”
Chin rejected a request by Madoff’s lawyer for leniency and said he disagreed that victims of the fraud were seeking mob vengeance.
“Here the message must be sent that Mr. Madoff’s crimes were extraordinarily evil and that this kind of manipulation of the system is not just a bloodless crime that takes place on paper, but one instead that takes a staggering toll,” Chin said.
The judge said the estimate that Madoff has cost his victims more than $13 billion was conservative because it did not include money from feeder funds.
“Objectively speaking, the fraud here was staggering,” he said.
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150 years for theft, 25 years for murder, is something wrong here or do I just not get it?
One crook down, countless to go.
What about all the big bankers/brokers/insurance guys etc… that helped create the issue we have now? Most of these guys are at least as guilty as this SOB.
I read a short time ago that the former president of Country Wide Financial has been charged. Again a good start but not even scratching the tip of the iceburg in my opinion.
What about all the investors/retirees who lost their life savings? Greed at its worse and his wife still gets to keep about $3million as some reports have it.
Capitalism at its worse.
Come on UV, capitalism at its worst? Fraud and corruption at its worst is more like it. Socialism has pissed away a million times more money than Madoff stole, with nothing to show for it.
I have to aggree with Ward. I don’t see how capitalism can be linked to this fraud other than it was capitalism which provided the enviroment for the victims to earn the money which was then stolen by this pos.
Way too much. Madoff is getting nailed because he picked the wrong victims and nothing more. Canada is one of the fraud capitals of the world but our scammers just rip off old people and third worlders. I doubt they get 10 years for it.
Greedy people like this who pray on others, give capitalism a bad name, whether it deserves it or not.
I guess Madoff who madeoff with many investors life savings, motto was “Theres a sucker born every minute” or as some would say “buyer beware.”
Madoff doesn’t represent capitalism but he does represent the natural result of a culture and government that refuses to regulate the economy in any way, shape or form. Americans took their “freedom” rhetoric to the extreme and the result was an overworked and understaffed SEC/INS/etc, unable to get in the way of Madoff’s god-given right to make a profit at any cost. Many Americans still support this ethic because they believe they will be the next billionaires – screw everyone else.
Madoff shouldn’t have gotten more than 10 years, IMO. He was playing the game that Reagan et al set in motion.