Authorities seek 150 year prison sentence for Madoff
Published: June 27, 2009
Updated 9 months ago
US authorities have asked for 150 years in jail for disgraced Wall Street mogul Bernard Madoff, who is accused of mounting one of the largest fraudulent operations of modern times, according to documents made public here.
“The scope, duration and nature of Madoff’s crimes render him exceptionally deserving of the maximum punishment allowed by law,” prosecutor Lev Dassin said in a memorandum.
He added that “a reasonable sentence in his case would be the guidelines sentence of 150 years or, alternatively, a term of years that both would assure that Madoff remain in prison for life, and forcefully would promote general deterrence.”
The former chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange operated the fraud for decades, conning investors into depositing billions of dollars that were then used to pay fictitious returns.
Madoff has been in jail since March after admitting guilt in the scheme, the biggest in Wall Street history and estimated to have involved around 61 billion dollars.
Many of the investors were elderly retirees who thought their life savings were in safe hands.
Madoff told the court in March that of the billions of dollars which passed through his hands during his three-decade scam he never invested one cent in the market. Instead he stashed the funds in a Chase Manhattan bank account.
The funds were then used to pay out “dividends” to investors in what is known as a “Ponzi scheme.”
Prosecutors say about 13 billion dollars were handed to Madoff. The financier himself has talked about losing some 50 billion dollars, which is believed to be the amount that would have been paid out had the funds been properly invested.
The sums were shockingly large — bigger than the gross domestic product of countries such as Luxembourg, and more than the external debt of several poor African nations.
The financier returns to a New York courtroom Monday for sentencing after pleading guilty to one of the biggest, most complex financial scams in history.
Meanwhile, US District Judge Denny Chin authorized the confiscation of 170 billion dollars seen as illegally obtained by Madoff
“Bernard Madoff is liable for a personal money judgment in the amount of 170,000,000,000 dollars, a sum of money representing the amount of proceeds obtained as a result of … offenses charged in counts 1, 3, 4 and 11 of the information,” the judge wrote, referring to the charges against the tycoon.
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Good..
However, and in fairness, Madoff is only the poster child for abuse on Wall Street.. He’s far from the final boss.
Without meaningful regulations, specifically with regard to derivatives and the casino style securitization schemes used to build leverage without adequate capital, our problems will continue.
You can give this prick 1000 years of hard labor and nothing will change. A pound of flesh will change nothing. We’ve got to have meaningful regulation and oversight, or we’re no better off than we were before.
In the wake of the great depression, Congress enacted meaningful reforms.. Now? There’s talk of putting the FED in charge.
It’s letting a child rapist run a day care center.. Dude, where’s my fucking change?
.. His thievery was 32 times the existing maximum sentencing guidelines..
.. He should get 32 LIFETIMES..
.. He should also be forced (anything that works) to disgorge information concerning others involved at the highest levels of his monumental scam - “TAKING THE FALL” is too easy a way out..
.. Where did he hide the money ?..
.. What foreign banks were involved with this theft ?..
What about Paulson & the others who are bailing out their buddies on Wall St. while unemployment rises? Those who find jobs often have no benefits, health care, etc. while those who stole billions replenish themselves from the national treasury.
Face it: the system is rigged hard against the average 401k investor who never wins in these scenarios. The rich have practiced trickle-up economics impoverishing the middle and lower classes for their benefit.
Madoff is surely a poster child for greed, but he is not the only offender here. The whole system encourages dishonesty, outsourcing of American industry and the offshoring of profits.
And Bernanke? And the root of the problem? Over leveraging?
Look if we are going to have a fractional reserve… Can’t the fucking FRACTION be legit?