Madoff gets 150 years — but is it enough?

if it was set up like this: the more he paid back to people 75% of investment then he would have ayear or two taken off of his sentence. i believe a great deal of people would have gotten a good % back.

whats the big deal? ok so he ran a ponzi scheme? and its not like he really stole all the 13 billion. most of it went to people who were happy as long as they were getting the interests on time. I don’t think he deserved a 150 year sentence. Maybe 7 years would have been fine. he is done. he is never going to be a threat to someone else. People have no problem when a crack addict, thieving criminal kills someone and is out in the street on parole in a year or so, and kills again… But oh no, bernie madoff is the worst criminal! what hypocrisy! If i were the judge, i’d let him off. he will suffer enough outside prison anyway,and i think people when making financial decisions should remember ‘caveat emptor!’ . Besides bernie madoff is better than the US government, because his victims voluntarily invested their money, unlike Social Security, which is forcibly taken from you, and its a ponzi scheme too, worse than anyother, and its bankrupt. maybe we should lock the architects and the ones who are helping perpetrate this ponzi scheme, in prison. how is that?

He should get an award for showing people what happens when you allow greed to replace common sense and logic. He stole some money, he didnt kill someone while driving drunk, or wasnt a sadistic crooked cop who used his power to taze, kill, or mame someone. He wasnt a crooked politician lying under oath to a nation of people to take this country into an unwinnable war costing thousands of lives. Because if he were any of these things…he wouldve gotten alot less time.

If Madoff lives another 149 years it would be the perfect sentence. He didn’t do it by himself but he is protecting those who helped. Maybe there will be a few more 150 year sentences doled out before the case is closed.

His cell should be wallpapered with photographs of each and every person he swindled.

150 years is revenge, not punishment. For fraud you could give him 25 years and that would be punishment. His victims will collect a minimum of 500,000 so they were not made destititute. His wife should only be allowed to keep 500,000 in fairness.

I still a little funny about the defence of the Madoff investors. These people put all of thier money into one fund that was outperforming everything in sight…defying finacial gravity if you will.

INVESTING IS RISKY (even when it is legit’) The Moment that one hands over ones money to a “manager” it’s not yours anymore and anything can happen. We don’t need to go too far back in time to remember when the DOW losing 50% in 6 months or GM being bankrupt was unimaginable.

Gambling = Gambling

Good, he got 150 years.
Every asset that he, his wife and maybe his children have should be 100%liquidated because 100% of it came from his victims. His wife and children need to get jobs and work hard to provide shelter and food, not live the life of leisure funded on the backs of the victims. The bigger question is what do you do with the investors that kept the returns at the expense of the victims under them?

add one to Eric Price

I don’t care if how long he is in Jail, just get all his asset (all “what and whoever he gave it to”) we all would like to take it back. Cause none of those belongs to him at all.
Otherwise what is the point.

Considering he wont live that long, I think it’s pretty useless to sentence someone for 150 years that is 71 years old, but if it makes people feel better then ok.

I believe that the sentencing is fair considering the scope of the damage that was done, by Bernie Madoff. Anything less than the 150 years, such as the 12 years being requested by his lawyer, would have been devasting to those victims of his Ponzi scheme. At the same time it sends a message to others perpetrating fraud, that getting caught you better be prepared for suffering the consequences. I am hoping that this case is not now closed. There had to be others that helped Bernie Madoff to sustain this Ponzi scheme for as long as it went and the amount of money involved. There is no way one individual could have done this by himself. What about Christopher Cox, formerly the SEC chairman? This was brought to his and the SEC’s attention well before 2008. There are still alot of questions that need to be answered to this whole mess. I also believe Ruth Madoff’s silence, until today, is too little;too late. She deserves Zero,Zippo,Nada.

Only a little over 1,000 people lost “billions”? sounds fishy to me, basically it was crooks investing in a crook, either make more money than you should or be the victim. Well it’s obvious to me that these people let greed be their guide.

i do not think 150 years is enough this is to easy of a sentence he still has the ability to scam people even from inside the prison system
what about the money madoff scammed
wher is that money gone to
the problem with this government all this money the honest tax payers put into investments need to be closr regulated it seems like these people get away with murder

ok, one final point on this. I like, like most decent people, do not believe in the death penalty EXCEPT in the most extreme cases. So we give Madoff 150 years, if he is such a burden to society, and he knows he is 71 and about to get 150 years, what is to stop him from shooting 10 people on his way in. Whats the difference. Either way its a life sentence, why not just go crazy and start taking out all your enemies and toss in a few people you just don’t like. What more can you do to him..give him 500 years, sit him on death row for 10 then exucute a 81 year old man. Do you really think it matters to him anymore. Think people!!! What a great idea, lets show every crook you going to get a life sentence but please, don’t kill nobody..or else you’ll get the same sentence. That is brilliant.

America’s founding father’s acknowledged human greed and therefore created a system based on checks and balances. I seriously doubt ANY punishment will eliminate future ripoffs. We will see more Madoff’s, more stock market schemes, and more mortgage crises UNLESS those responsible for excercising the checks and balances are more alert.
That includes the individuals investors, the president and the congress.

His crime does not fit the time when you think about what the those crooks at Enron got for their criminal acts. If he is to get 150 yrs, then they should be retried and given the same. They hurt far more folks than Bernie did, most of which was blue collar folks.

Put him in jail, wasting taxpayer money.
He deserves a death penalty because he ruins a lot of people’s life. I recalled that one person committed suicide because of him.

I think 150 years is fine. But what about the SEC? What about the fact that they missed this guy for so long? They should be punished and have to pay damages to the victims. Our Govn’t sits here and has all these laws to protect us. We rely on these laws!!! And when they screw up and fail to enforce them we pay the bill! Well enough is enough!!!
I suffered a Ponzi scheme and lost $75k. Google Chuck Trigilio and you will see that the SEC missed more than just Bernie!

150 years is the same as 20 for Bernie. He will die in prison. Justice. One can only hope his wife and kids get absolutely nothing. Hopefully they will be selling pencils on the street corner. That would be the ultimate justice for Bernie.

Considering our own government is running various different ponzi schemes at this very moment (social security and Medicaid to name a couple), I think they should be the last to throw the stone on Mr. Madoff. This said, I think he deserves his sentence, and everyone perpetuating the ponzi schemes within our government should be locked up next to him.

Why is it that Ruth Madoff still gets to keep $2.5M? With that much money in the bank, she needed to ride the subway from now on? that was totally staged.

All her money should be taken away and paid proportionally to all his victims. She shouldn’t be left with a penny. She could walk instead of riding any public transportation.

wish he was younger then he would serve more time. My heart breaks his wife has to get by on 2.5 million!!!

If he serves more than ten years, chances are that would end up being a life sentence. Does it really matter what number you put on it, if he is there untill he dies. People shouldn’t get hung up on the insignificance of 150 years, is it enough.

If you trust your investments to someone else, why would you expect to make money?

first off, the man is in his seventies, so 150 years does unjust. he has already lived the majority part of his life enjoying the fine luxuries in life. and finally….how much did his investors really suffer? im sure they made some money while they were invested in Bernie too..but no ones gonna go after those guys are they….

He should have received at most 5 years. It’s not that big of deal. Shooting someone during a liguor store hold-up is a much bigger deal.

Sorry for the people that lost their life savings but I have to agree with out posts…if it looks too good to be true, it is.
If victims are able to get money back, it should be what they put into the fund, not what the money was valued at. Those returns never existed, anyway.
Greed.

it was only money. If people were not so greedy and fall for what seems too good to be true there wold be no Madoffs. 12 years would have had the same effect as 150 years without the revenge. The Lord says “vengence is Mine.” Forgive him and stop storing all your treasure here on earth.

he should have gotten the death panalty instead

What on earth makes anyone here feel like they can decide what is “enough”? What about the people who invested money with him, knowing how the stock market works – when someone wins, someone else loses. They were fine with everythign when they were ripping other people off for 25-30%. The scam involved up to 50 billion dollars, yet 110 billion dollars has been seized – why wouldn’t everyone get their money back? What about the people who profited already and took their money out – should they have to pay back their profits?

Giving 150 years to a 71 year old man is ridiculous. Certainly he needs to be punished, but in this case, prison really isn’t it. Madoff is a very rich man. Seize his assets, leave his wife with enough to support herself well and give the rest to charity, leaving him penniless and stripped of any ability to ever earn another nickel, except from an ordinary job.

No, I don’t feel so sorry for many of the people he swindled. If everyone approached investing without stars in their eyes and looking for a big shot-rem payout, they wouldn’t be vulnerable to people like Madoff. Due diligence would have shown that what he was peddling was to god to be true. Don’t know how to determine this? Then don’t invest. Greed will eventually bite you in the butt everytime.

This is in response to Bryan Knott’s comment. Direct investors to Madoff funds received returns of 25%; The feeder funds, on the other hand, never achieved anything close to 25%. The returns range between 6.4% to 9.3% in the last 10 years. Does this mean the Fund managers and the institutions/banks which assisted to funnel more money to Madoff funds pocketed the difference?? in addition to the management fees/ performance based fees they collected from their investors?? A deeper investigations are neccessary to get to the bottom of it!!

“I think this sentence is way too harsh. Mr. Madoff should have been immediately released because he is a decent man who has just made a mistake”

You’re kidding right? I don’t consider spending over 20 years KNOWINGLY swindling people out of their life savings for their own personal gain a “mistake”, he knew EXACTLY what he was doing and would have continued if he hadn’t got caught. Even still, he broke the law and he is now paying for his crimes. But based on this idiotic comment, everyone who commits a crime should just be set free because they simply made a mistake. HA! Thanks for the laugh.

Madoff was not in this alone. Someone at the SEC was a part of this and those people need to be brought to justice.

Madoff got off easy.
He should be executed slowly,
by hanging on Hooks, like what the
Nazis did.
Sometimes Society Laws had to be tough
to get rid of all the Crooks in this great country. These crooks are taking advantage of us all law abiding citizens. Just take a look
at our country deficits, and you can easily tell, all the Wall Street and Political Crooks are asking us all,
our children and grand children to pay for their greed.
Satan will take care of these “Low level insects” if not taken care on this Earth.

John MacDavis

When a crook is punished, there never fails to be a shortage of “bleeding hearts” out there to whine. But, when something happens to them it’s the same old, “Why wasn’t I protected?”

150 years? Turn him out to let the investors determine whats appropriate.

The Court should also take all of his assets into a trust to determine what belongs to other people by how he spent the money he took from others. There is another case that will be happeneing in Port Orchard, WA, against another real estate developer who has done the same thing.

Rule number one of investing : Diversify
Rule number two of investing : Diversify
Rule number three of investing : Diversify

What about the SEC who were suppose to be watching Madoff. They need to be held accountable. They get a paycheck and at least we need to fire those in the SEC who looked the other way. This touched too many lives to have ended with Madoff going to jail.

Although he is a fraud and did decieve his investors and so on…are you being sane, saying, 150 years is not enough? and lets remember, two things: first is that the main goal to give money back, and not simply to put a swindler behind bars, second, lets look around: what about Wall Street CEO who made that mess, hedge managers who made billions on that and legislators who made it possible to steal legally. After all, don’t forget about our own greed.
GENTLEMEN, LET’S NOT GO Mad! It’s more than enough of Madoff.

No, it is not even close to being enough.

I do not believe any amount of time is enough to compensate for what this man’s victims have been through these past months, and will probably continue to go through for yet a while to come. For those who receive a measure of peace to be able to move on, as a result of this sentencing, it is worth it(not enough, but worth it). For those who have not received much by way of soundmindedness to move on, my only prayer is that you are able to find strength to move on and not let this man’s evil live on by you dying. Be strong and of good courage all!

I don’t have a dime, and even I know you don’t put all your money in one place. Most of those people lost SEVERAL million–but that wasn’t enough. Still they wanted such a high return that they threw common sense to the wind. Even those who lost charity money should have known better–if it sounds too good to be true, it is.

“madoff broke peoples hopes and dreams”.

Sure, they were hoping and dreaming to rob other people. Instead they were robbed THEMSELVES.

I think they should make Madoff and his wife live on the streets with the homeless people until they tell where they hid all that money

** There is one big question that none of the news reporters have asked.

He is turning over all his assets of $170 billion, and the scan was somewhere around 10% of that.

So, with all that money, why would investors get all their money backc?

What am I missing here?

Some help please CNN?

He and his wife should be left penniless. She will be keeping a couple of million that belongs to the victims.

Some say prison should be to reform, educate and rehabilitate. In his case and at his age, hard labor for the rest of his miserable life would be too gentle.

I don’t how people never learn about these ponzi schemes. If something sounds too good to be true, it always is!

A lot of people who invested with him were simply gready to believe that someone can generate a 25% a year return even when the market is down.

This goes deeper than Madoff… It would appear lot’s of people were involved in this, and a full investigation of the SEC is also in order. The IRS and Treasury should go through each friend and family members financial accounts using forensic accounting techniques to determine who and by how much these folds were enriched, and then force disgorgement. And if they committed a crime, mandatory 30 years for each, no parole…

Are we sure that these sentences are to be served consecutively and not concurrently? If the latter he couyld be out in 12 to 15 years should he live that long.

No this is not enough,he should have got 200 years because he is the only human who will live to be 300.When is enough, enough?????Everything happens for a reason and some of the investors had it coming to them.Too much greed and this is the outcome.

I feel the punishment is appropriate. He will not have any more comfort in life just as the people who invested in risky 15% returns every year.

The time is right but he’s gonna be dead soon anyway so what good is this long sentence. The fed’s need to look harder and deeper into his assets and his families assets.

The $2.5 mil his wife got, that needs to be taken back and distributed accordingly. Mrs. Madoff should be stripped of all of her assets along with the rest of Madoff family. Why on gods green earth should they be entitled to a free ride? Go and get a job Mrs. Madoff. You were the cooking book keeper behind this… If certain members had nothing to do with this upon investigation, let them be. My guess is, the majority of the Madoff family was in on this scam.

Situations like this one remind me of the movie Goodfellas. These are my words to the Madoff family, “Go Home and Get Your Shine Box”!…

A sorry person will not try to pass valuables to their relatives for safe-keeping instead of handing it out to pay their victims.

For far too long, sentences in white collar crimes have been far too lenient for the amount of damage they have done to victims.

I hope that the justice system uses the Madoff case as a precedent for future sentencing. CEO’s and others who betray their clients and shareholders and who think they are above the law need to be locked away like the common criminals that they are.

I wish Mr. Madoff a very, very, very long life indeed. My only regret is that his sentence coundn’t be served somewhere to Ruth -like Rykers Island or Sing Sing.

I find it interesting that the constant argument here is “is money worth a harsher crime than murder”. Certainly I agree that someone who kills another man committed a worse crime that someone who stole another man’s money. The reason this man deserves (in my opinion) more of a penalty than jail time is not that he stole a lot of money, but rather the number of offenses. This man committed a crime against so many people, so many families ruined, so many dreams crushed. Sure, killing a man hurts them, and their family, but this man has ruined it for thousands of people, at least.

They should put him to work cleaning gas station restrooms. And every dollar earned should go to the people he swindled.

The sentence is correct. However, why did his wife get her $2&1/2 million back? She was an investor just like the other victims. They lost it all. The important part is that it was impossible for Bernie to do this by himself. I hope the others involved get charged with the crime and get the same type of severe sentencing.

I think this sentence is way too harsh. Mr. Madoff should have been immediately released because he is a decent man who has just made a mistake. Why sending him to jail for the rest of his life for the only reason he made a mistake ? He has not committed any violent crime and he has worked hard during all is life. Mr. Madoff deserves being released from the hell he has been put through, so he could enjoy a well-deserved retirement with his loved ones. I pray for an appeal of his sentence, so this good man could be a free man again.

Sit him in a room alone with only a bible…every day.

I think Berney Madoff should have been sentenced to 40 years in a homeless shelter or with 1 canteen of water and a tent in the Arizona desert.

At 71 years of age, he’s pretty much confined to a small area by the virtue of his age anyway. So there’s actually not much difference between living in jail or being a free man. In fact, with all his problems now gone, Madoff will probably live longer in jail than as a free man. I think he should be in complete solitary confinement. He needs silence so he can talk to himself. Maybe then something will dawn on him before passing away.

My only disappointment is that he won’t live long enough to serve his full term. Unless of course he really does; boy, will he be old when he gets out!

The sentence may be long enough, but serving time in solitary confinement like a murderer should have been included in the sentence.

madoff broke peoples hopes and dreams,he deserves maximum prison with hard labor til he dies.

I guess this proves the point that money is more important than rape, murder, and child molesting. Why don’t judges make an example out of them? We live in such a selfish money grubbing society that blue collar crimes get more attention than the crimes that alter society’s way of life. Sure he should have went to prison, but when you can out and molest a child and be home for dinner-give me a break.

Most of you people are just an embarrassment. One numbskull even spelled penalty wrong. I promise you, if any of you complete idiots ever had a child raped, kidnapped or murdered, you would know the difference between a crime that demands a life sentence or worse and a crime of stealing money. Stealing money is bad, he needs to pay for his crime, stop the loose talk about 150 years of death penalty, people in other countries living in straw houses, drinking dirty water might think we arogant, ignorant or that we may have even lost touch with reality.

I think it is a bit ridiculous to say that white collar crime is worse than crimes of passion. Although Bernie’s motivations were greed, he no longer poses any threat to society. Restrict his movements, keep him under house arrest and keep him away from Wall Street, but to give Bernie a life sentence similar to a murderer or sexual offender seems overdone. Although an example needs to be made of Madoff, I don’t think sentencing an elderly man to die in a jail cell is the proper solution. What sentence will the regulators who sidestepped the entire Ponzi scheme get? The real tragedy might be the focus on Bernie as a scapegoat for the overarching problem of a lack of stringent and reliable oversight.

he should be hanged upside down util he is dead, he destroyed so many lives it’s unfathomable that he is allowed to survive using tax payeers’ money in a jail cell, if he has any decency left, he should spare us the expense and hang himself

At his age, does it really matter whether it’s 20 years or 120 years? He’s going to die in prison and all the extra years in the world don’t matter. It will make the people who want vengence happy, but in the end the added time makes no difference. In addition, let’s not forget that only 1 part of this crime has been sentenced. Each of these greedy “victims” needs to look in the mirror and take responsibility for their own greed. Without that, Madoff could never have ripped them off.

150 years is going way overboard! When did a convicted killer get that? Well then look at them both and see if he added up to being as bad. The man only stole money. If lies and theift are that bad then everyone that murders should get death penalty from this day forward! Look at the Tot-Mom in Florida, watch what she gets.

He’s a dirt bag and deserves to rot in that cell. Make him belong to some sort of work group like trash picking for little or no pay so he can see what its like to be poor.

Should he be going alone to prison? What about all those that were his partners? Seems to me his practice was too large to have been controlled by only one person!

Ha, his “apology” was a joke and he’s only sorry he got caught; He’s been doing this for well over 20 years and would have continued doing it if he could. This scum deserves to live exactly like the peoples’ lives he’s ruined but since America will NEVER do something like that, 150 years in prison is the next best thing. I even thought about the death penalty, but in reality that’s the easy way out for this low life. I say give him 150 years in one of America’s roughest prison and see how he interacts with America’s most violent criminals. In any case, I’m sure Ken Lay already has a seat saved for him in the depths of hell once he croaks.

He got a good sentence!

However, when are we going to start sending CEO’s and the Board of Director’s of public companies to jail? Anything over 2 million a year is outrageous! In France, it was off with your head, nowadays people are just like whatever, let’s complain to public officials, and at the same time complain about big government Wake up people!

I think 150 years is a start. 150 years in Rikers General Population sounds like a good beginning. That being said~he still has 3 hots, a cot and a roof. Can the same be said for his victims? He is one greedy old goat.

No it is not enough. He should be made to do hard labor to pay back some of the money that he took from people. Plus everything him and his wife owns should be sold to pay back some of the debit.

I believe that the government should place Mr. Madoff on a special program in prison. Have him spend all of his time doing that which he loves, making money. Not for himself, but for those he has terrorized. Let him earn millions or billions of dollars and have ALL of that money go back to his investors. I believe that this will feed his relentless ego, and actually repay some of the billions he owes. I do not believe that he will ever tell where the offshore monies or assets are hidden.

Not enough because the SEC failed investors completely. The SEC was warned about Madoff Securities and they failed. Repeatedly.

150 years means nothing, it’s the quality of life that maters. Living in medium security will not be too bad. He will get to read books and watch TV, just like most 70 something want to do.
He should spend time in solitaire without outside information and books.
Let him think about what he did.
I hope they don’t let this parasite take the easy way out and commit suicide. I wish him a long healthy life

Isn’t it amazing the same people who are screaming how they were betrayed by Madoff and were wiped out by him were the same people getting 25% returns a few years back when the markets were yielding 10%…where was the anger then…..these people got what they deserved when they took the profits beyond market expectations…as the saying goes if it’s too good to be true….it’s probably a lie…..giving Madoff 150 years solves nothing because he is one guy among one hundred that have drove this economy to the brink…..if the prosecutors wanted to get real with this type of white collar crime then they should have asked for the death penalty…but before America goes down this road understand there will always be greed and treachery when you deal with cash in any market or financial setting. People need to be responsible where they invest thier money and understand where the money they invest goes….it’s every investors responsibility and failing to do so ultimately lies with every individual investor.

What kind of brain resides in such a dumb judge that sentences a 71 year old man a 150 years in prison. If that’s leadership, no wonder this country this country is crashing.

People. He stole money and gets a 150 years, where as someone takes a like and gets 7 years? Goes to show you how messed up peoples priorities are. Money over life. Pathetic.

It’s tobad he is not a younger man. Where is his wife? She needs a little jail time. Maybe half his. What he did is as bad as murder.

Is a hundred and fifty years not enough? What, are we supposed to make him live longer or something? The sentencing fits the crimes, and the judge showed him no mercy as he shouldn’t have. I don’t know why everybody is trying to inject emotion into this as if he took their money. We’re third parties.

Now that Madoff has been sentenced (althought no sentencing will ever restore what he knowingly took from his victims), the authority should really focus on why no one at SEC found out about this crime and let this maniac lived in luxury beyond measured when the fact he stole from other hard working people? Mind you, all feeder fund managers and big institutions behind them, which accomodated his scheme by finding more investors for Madoff need to be investigated!! What kind of due deligent have they done before introducing this ponzi product to their clients?? These institutions need to refund the fees they have collected from “the investment”. The fees are not justified to be kept. Put these fees in the pot along with Madoff assets for distribution to the investors!!

Not enough, but not more years.

Madoff and many of those on Wall Street responsible for the housing-ponzi-loan schemes should be working in soup kitchens during the day and sleeping in their cells at night. Something to help open their eyes to the pain of poverty that their greed has helped cause for so many.

I find that 150 year sentence is an appropriate sentence for what Madoff did. On the other hand, what I find utterly outrageous is that his wife gets to keep $ 2.5 millions of the stolen money, when by many accounts, she was “in on” the scheme and even participated actively on it. Regardless of what Bernard said that she didn’t know, she had to. Billions don’t come rolling in just like that.
She should be joining her husband in jail, the sooner the better.

In my opinion I don’t think we should spen anymore of our hard earned tax payer dolloras on this guy. He should not go to jail….he should have to work for the rest of his life and all the money he make as little as it will be should go to those he stole from.

Had he ripped off a whole bunch of middle or low income people his sentence would have been less than 10 years. The media would have also not given it the coverage it has.

Starting immediately, water-boarded 3 times a week — for every million he surrenders, he gets one water-board day off

i don’t play the stock market so i will be as fair to this as possible i think he should do time for the crime but putting him in jail is to easy i think he should have to work to pay all the money to the victims familys
with interest and make him work at hard labor for the rest of his life and to face the victims for what he has done let set and example for people to follow put him in jail will not bring back money to all the victims of this crime who has nothing to retire on!!!!!!

Our criminal system needs more judges like this! Think about it!

He will be 221 years old when he is released. Seems about right.

Madoff committed hateful crimes, but be careful about exemplary punishment – not always does it provide fair justice.

stalworth got 30 days for killing a guy with his car while driving drunk.Somehow, our justice system just may need some tweaking.

Ridiculous sentence. Hanging one person does not address systemic issues that can and will be abused again as soon as we get out of this economic crisis.
I am in a complete disbelief about some of the comments posted on this page suggesting medieval torture, hanging, lynching … Honestly, I am more concerned about that kind of thinking than with one greedy person’s fate and life behind the wall.

Free him !!! He is a victmim of a greedy society !! Sell all assets, give them to charity and live in poverty !!!

A generic “apology” is not enough. He should have to sit down with every single victim who wants to take advantage of the opportunity of a face-to-face to tell him how much he has hurt each one. Hour after hour, day after day….

It is enough in terms of a deterrent factor. But it will never be enough for the legions of investors he defrauded and ruined. They will never be made whole again even by the insurance. It is a just sentence.

I hope he does his best to fulfill the sentence.

here we go again, this is to all the retards who want to speak about goverment or presidents. Just SHUT UP.
this article is about one man and whoever worked with him. they should be punished. and the us attorney proved he aint playing hes going after everyone. Good for him.
sure the wife dont deserve a cent but do you really think this guy hasnt got any cash hidden away somewhere ,where she knows about it. and of course this hefty sentence will get overturned at a later date – after the wolfs eat. and the responsible ones here are the securities exchange, im sure after this circus show things have or will be tougher. i hope the investors get some money back with intrest and severence.

It would seem Madoff had decided to play it too big,making the best out of all the “loopholes” present in the system. But how many “junior Madoffs” are out there and got away with it?
I still havent heard of any regulators and watchdogs getting hard hit as he did. The man is over 70, if an example should be set go get the 40 year old Madoffs (if you can).

In come countries they chop off the hands of a theif. Sounds good to me considering the suffering he has caused to so many people. The jail sentence could then be 12 years of trying to feed himself without hands or else holding a fork and knife with his toes. Also, let his cell mate be the biggest guy with an alternative sexual life style.

I think it’s just a waste of money to put him in prison just keep him under house arrest and make him do community service

This is not only Madoff’s fault. The SEC, the clients who were so greedy that they allowed themselves to be convinced that you can get something extra for nothing. None of us heard about this guy before the scandal. The only people who did are those who beleived they deserved a greater return than the rest of us when no other investor could. I do feel bad for these people but greed sometimes comes back to haunt us.

Personally, I think they should have let him loose outside the courthouse and let the people he stole from get him. That being said, I realize he won’t live to see the end of his sentence, but the symbolism of the 150 years was important. I agree with most people posting that his wife and sons should also go to prison.

White-collar crime, in my opinion, is the worst kind. It is premeditated and is a result of greed. Usually these people are already wealthy and living a good life. Other crimes are bad but are a result of passion, need, or drug addiction. Yet far too often white-collar criminals get lighter sentences than those committed out of passion or desperation. I say, throw the book at the extremely greedy.

What do you mean “is it enough?” He dies in prison! Is there anything else other than try to recover some money to pay to victims?

There are a lot of point here, but first of all… take it easy, gentlemen. Aren’t you a little bit out of senses saying century and a half is not enough? A desire for a brutal vengeance was never a sign of a civilized man. Then, please, let’s not take the story that simple. It’s for the CNN to picture enraged but satisfied with their righteous anger down-and-out victims in front of the national court, where the justice have just triumphed over a financial monster, marking the greatness of the american judicial system. For a somehow coolly curious mind it’s a life story of an outstandic personality, whatever devil he was, and a remarkable story of corruption and greed and self-delusion. Sure, there was a fraud, but, say frankly, didn’t a lot those decieved investors closed their eyes against something they didn’t want to see? Sure, there were a lot of those who have never heard about Madoff before last December, and they are trully decived and hurt and fully desrve a compassion. But what about many more other “victims” who must have suspected something, given their business records and social status, but ignored the most explicit red flags, including direct warning letters. And finally, why don’t you want to arraign those CEO guys from Wall Street who brought about all that fianacnial mess and comfortably “parachuted” with millions in their pockets, or hedge managers who made billions on that crises, or after all those legislator who made it possible to steal legally. That’s the real enemies of society, not less dangerous than the 71-eyers old grey-headed froud. And of course, our own greed.

At 71 years old Bernie gets the last laugh. He will spend probably 7-8 years in prison before he dies yet he lived the life of a billionaire for 40 years. Most people would gladly take that deal.
It is very sad for the victims. I can’t imagine losing my life savings to a con man….

He should have to do 150 years of community service – clean streets by day and sleep in a cell every night. At least that would help offset the cost of keeping him in jail.

Florida retiree

FREE MADOFF !!! HE IS JUST ANOTHER VICTIM OF A GREEDY SOCIETY !!!!

Mr Madoff gets a sentence that is more then a war criminal wood ever get. This is of course completely overdone. Mr Madoff gets this sentence because a large group of bankers have brought the world to the brink of catastrophy, and this has resulted in widespread anger. Of course, what he did was not so nice, but in the perspective of what the well respected bankers have done, it is only a minor offence. The justice system should stay away from sentencing on the basis of public anger.

Madoff deserves to die in jail. But I still want to see accountability in the SEC. Those who failed to act on strong suspicions of his collegues need to be held accountable for the devastation it caused so many.

150 years is a shocking number as a life sentence.I guess the point was to parallel his shocking 150 year sentence with the never seen before 64 bn robbery.Both numbers are huge and i think were meant to mirror each other.

It’s odd that we can (correctly) value human life as being worth something between $500-3M, depending on the calculation, for purposes of airline disaster payouts and such, but we don’t have the stomach to execute white collar criminals like Madoff, who have destroyed or drastically reduced the quality of hundreds, maybe thousands of lives. The conversion rate works both ways.

He should be taken out of prison every day to a smelly, difficult job – perhaps cleaning sewers or working in a garbage dump – and made to give the money away to someone who really needs it – then taken back to prison and given no comforts at all. Sitting around in jail for the next few years until he dies won’t benefit anyone.

To those that justify Ruth keeping $2.5 million because it was her inheritance: How can you justify that she hadn’t already spent the lion’s share of this money on her extravagant shopping trips. She inherits less than 2 million yet her name is on assets in the tens of millions? She knew exactly what was going on. This is obviously some deal cut with Bernie for the ins and outs of his scam.

The crime was indeed theft and wrong. However I believe the investors were stupid to invest with a firm with little knowledge of its actual investments, and furthermore investing 100% of their “life savings” is even more stupid. The first thing I learned when my dad taught me about investing is to diversify. Talk to any financial advisor, and that should be the first word out of their mouth.

I think the investors in Madoff’s scheme felt some of the same greed that Madoff felt, and they’re paying for it now, as well.

personally I am very very happy, that investors lost money. Cant you understand that god punishes the greedy. Yes many charities also lost, but how many times do we wake up and thank god for what we have. Yes I along with many sages always believe that such an incident comes from god and its a punishment from god

When all is said and done, the victims of Madoff may well receive some compensation. For those of us who lost our entire retirement (and cannot return to any employment) with the collapse of Wachovia common stock what will we receive? Nothing. It’s pennies on the dollar. It’s a crime and we were assured by the CEO that all was all right and the rating companies said “Hold” Now what do we do? What recourse do we have?

Sure, he deserved it. But the same time I have zero compassion for his so called victims.
Even if they thought their income was coming from legitimate trading activity or something,
they just hoped that Medoff would LEGALLY take OTHER people’s money and bring it to them.
How many of his clients who withdrew enough money in the past to stay overall positive rushed to return what they “earned” ?
Yes, sure, they understand how horrible it is once they LOST it. But what if any of them got out just in time ?
They’d now think how smart and successful they were.
You want good returns from stocks or whatever other pyramid scheme – here is your risk.
You want something safe – buy CD and be happy with the modest interest.

Every asset that he owns or that his family owns as a result of his misdealings should be siezed to repay the money he took.

Madoff should get one year in solitary confinment to think about what he did and then he should be executed.

His family should be stripped of all there money and possesions and put out on the street to start from ground zero. The money gained from this act should be distributed to those who lost it.

I find it very interesting/ disturbing that we as Americans can demand and feel justified that a man gets sentenced to 150 years for a crime that affected people financially (which I agree was horrible but losing your money is not the worst thing that can happen-ask people that do not have any to begin with) yet we are not outraged when a boyfriend brutally beats his girlfriend or someone drinks and drives and kills someone and receives NO jail time. Explain that to me.

He should be physically and mentally tortured every day for the rest of his life.

Your kidding here I hope. Obama is ripping off this country far worse that Bernie did. For that matter, all politicians shouod be sent away for cheating the american public. Bernie is a crook, but there are much worse than him runing about. Oil compaines with billion dollar earing……

Who is really the crook, the person abusing the system or the person(s) who created it.

For too long, our judicial system has held a double standard for white collar and blue collar crimes. I think that armed robbery of a convenience story is terribly wrong, but how many people are endangered by that? Compare this to the number of lives lost and more importantly, lives ruined by Madoff. White collar crime has the potential to harm or kill far more people than the more interpersonal blue collar crimes. How many people died because of Kenneth Lay? We’ll never know, because we don’t keep track of suicides, deaths due to loss of health insurance, huge loss in quality of life because of lost pension funds.
Madoff is a good example for how to treat all the Wall Street b*****ds who believe they deserve $20 million bonuses after running a company into the ground and ruining people’s lives.

He should do Hard Time especially if he does not cooperate and share the rest of the scum bags who helped in his life of fraud.

Since he apoligized to all the folks he screwed over, the judge could have at least changed the sentence to 149 years!

It is ridiculous, it is a white collar crime, let alone the sentence of 150 years come on he’s 71 why not just him 25 years or life which ever comes first. People who say death penalty really, every day murderers walk out of prison only serving 10 or 15 years how does that see just to you. 150 years is a ridiculous sentence for a crime of this nature. I do think he is a horrible person for taking advantage of people but come on.

Seriously? People like Madoff ought to be strung up in public. I am glad they gave him the 150 year sentence, and not the lighter one of 12 years. Really. Would you let a serial killer off with a lighter sentence because he only was expected to live 13 more years? he did the crime, he ruined many peoples lives, and he should be expected to pay for those crimes.

I am thinking that if someone else is thinking about doing what Madoff did they should think about it again and again.
Because their time might be coming soon.

Computer hackers who steal millions and cause billions in damage also get much less time than Bernie.

Investors who were unable to realize the unrealistic nature of the returns, blinded by greed, who wanted to play it risky, also have to partly blame themselves for their losses too, which by the way will partially be recovered through the SIPC and legal actions. Murder and rape victims lose something that will never be recoverable, yet murderers and rapists only serve 15-30 years.

well i think that life with out the possible of parole would have done the job.150 years people dont even live that long 150 years is just a media hype to show the public what they can do there is no real justice in saying 150 years he does need time but what there saying 150 years is just PR that’s it

Yeah–ridiculous sentence. Message–don’t steal from the rich. Purpose–make the sentence so severe it will satisfy the mob and prevent a closer look at the whole stench-ridden mess of our financial systems AND the regulators who turned a blind eye on Madoff and no doubt dozens of others

well, I should say: get ready tax payers for making possible his life in the prison, our money, again

Most of the people leaving such illogical comments here need to stop blaming others for their own failures. Unless you are one of or a dependant of one of the 1000-some victims of Madoff, your bad financial situation probably isn’t so affected by crooked white collar criminals or corrupt government officials.

I sense a lot of bitterness from the hatred in these posts, but please don’t be so arrogant to think that blaming others will make life better for yourself. If you’re from the U.S., you probably didn’t make the best choices in life and thats why you ended up where you are.

Rapists and murderers get less than 30 years in prison.

I believe the prison term was a very just term for Mdaoff. I myself am a victim of a very similar scheme out of Detroit, Mi. started by Desmond Weems. I invested my life savings into this scheme and benefited from have absolutely nothing. So I sympathize for all the people involved, because my financial life has been destroyed and I can only imagine how the victims involved with Madoff are feeling. Even though the money may never be recovered life still must go on.

Death Penalty was an easy way out for him… Look at what he did to all the victims, to our messed up “economy” today??? Well, no punishment on earth will be a fair justment for this guy. On top of that the Goverment gave him “too much” time to “laundry” the money to someone else, hell knows…

I think 150 years is a bit too much. They should have reduced it to 10 years…. of HARD LABOR! I think he should be broken and ground down untill all that is left is the withered husk of the sleaze he was.

Giving a 70 year old man a 150 year sentence is meaningless. Given the life expectancy of white males in America Mr. Madoff is probably within 5 years of being dead anyway.

If the average person were to be offered a deal which allowed them to steal 50 billion dollars and be allowed to spend it freely and enjoy life to the fullest for 20 years before being sent away to prison at age 70, I suspect most would jump at the opportunity.

It is apparent that there is no real interest on the part of the courts, Congress or prosecuting authorities in effectively putting a stop to this kind of behavior.

Whether we are talking about the S & L crooks from 20 years ago; the sub-prime thieves; politicians on the take, or Bernie Madoff, the correct thing o do is to demand that all of the money they stole be returned, with interest! Right down to the clothes on their back and the backs of their wives, mistresses, children and cronies. Every dime they ever stole should be required to be paid back; if they can’t pay it back the burden should fall to their families, their companies, their estate and anyone else who can be held accountable.

After his death in prison he gets to go straight to Hell where he can hang with Satin for eternity. He will pay.

It is a start, the family that continue to benefit a life style based of lies and decption off of others life savings should be garnished. This way no one will even see a benefit to do such a dispicable crime so their family may flourish! Let them start from ZERO…

He shout be executed by hanging in public + take every penny and every item of value from him and any of his family that worked for him….

His wife and kids all should be stripped of every single dime and sent to the homeless shelter…

Is it enough????!!! How can anything possibly be enough for this monster? It is refreshing however to see that Madoff did not fair as well as the evil doers of Enron. For some reason, the criminal system does not punish those who ruin thousands of lives through deciet remotely as harshly as it punishes those who ruin a single life through violent acts.

Of course it is enough for him because he could not live that long. I think his wife, should be left with nothing as he left his victims. I’m sure he has a lot stashed somewhere where his family could get it and use it. They are just as guilty if not more guity then he is. They should all be left penniless and all their property should be confiscated to pay back the people he stole from. And anyone who commits such a similar crime should all get the same treatment. Our system unfortunately is so corrupt that he could be paying someone off to get a lighter sentence. I will wait to see which prison he goes to and if sometime down the road he gets time off for good behavior. Who paid for his lawyers, his family or the taxpayers? How could he have gotten away with this for so long? Why do we pay for an SEC?

His wife and sons should go to prison too. They knew what was going on. Our court system sucks!

I’d be tempted to allow the 12-yr sentence sought by Madoff’s attorneys if these same attorneys would be willing to spend the full 12 years in a cell right next to the man, in addition to losing their licenses to practice “law” in the USA.

Letting his wife keep 2.5 million galls me. I do not resent her getting social security, because he paid in, or a retirement from some legitimate work – but 2.5 million is much more than most of his investors started with and most Americans even earn in a lifetime of honest work. This keeping 2.5M was part of a plea…there was no reason to accept that as part of the plea…they already had him dead to rights. Just say no…we are not bargaining.

I think even the clothes she bought with ill gotten gains, which by the way includes a sable coat worth ~45K, should be auctioned, right down to the last pair of panties.

Also, Bernie should be made to talk. No talk and he would get the hardest prison time there is; maximum security and placed in the general prison population.

71 year old Bernie took to fall…and his family is laughing all the way to the bank…..

I think the Mrs. was wise to take the “I never knew” stance. Hate to see her have to work for a living…

no he should have got 151 years….come on….the relevant piece of news is he is going to die in prison…

GOT OFF TOO EASY. I WOULD HAVE PREFERRED HIM TO SPEND THE REST OF HIS LIFE REPAYING HIS DEBTS. THAT WOULD BE A BETTER LESSON…..BUT THAT IS AMERICAN POLITICS.

I was hoping for a Death Penalty sentence. There was another scam artist that scammed a bank and others for $199 million and all he had to pay bcak was approximately $ 40-45 Million. He will be out soon and have all the money to his name.tsk tsk tsk.
These guys deserve the death penalty so the nest one to even think of something similar will be discouraged.

public stoning….then medieval torture.

What about a few years for the leadership of the SEC, which allowed the Madoff scam to operate in the first place?

he should suffer pure hell in prison every second, and all monies should be paid back to those people who lost everything.

So he gets 150 years, then how many years do all the government regulators that keep turning there back anytime someone suggestest he was running a ponzi scheme to begin with.

“I live in a tormented state for all the pain and suffering I created,” he said. “I left a legacy of shame. It is something I will live with for the rest of my life.”

Funny how remorse shows up when you get caught and punished. Wonder how tormented he was since 1986 when he spent other people’s money and future?

It’s a start, but what about all the others in on it, and the other brokerage firms that put this economy in the toilet with their false claims. What of the bankers and brokers that knew applicants were lying on mortgage applications and then sold them as securities with that knowledge. There needs to be a few more hundred trials before we scratch the surface of this corruption.

Let him sit in prison and wish that he was on the other side. He is an idiot and he should have to spend the rest of his life thinking about what he did to those people.

How about death that fits the crime.

150 years in cell ! My goodness he’s going to relax and die peacefully. He’s not going to suffer like the victims. Maybe some of his victims might not even have a roof. He has one isn’t it without any worries?
DIG out all that monies and assets from him and his “gang” and return to the victims. Definitely there are accomplice. Chase after them also !

The government should make his family pay for the annual cost of keeping him in jail!!!

This is a case where something like the death penalty should be considered

all of his and his family assets should also be frozen and then returned to investors

The judge should issue the sentence based on the guidelines and if 150 years is the maximum that’s what he should get. Though I think a better way the judge to state is his sentence should be “your sentence is you will die in jail vs 150 years”. There is no probability he will live another 150 years.

It is enough in the court of the law.

Victims should sue the department which closed their eyes on this guy because his stutus.

Once those people are sentenced, this is enough…..

to all those using the argument:
“it’s absurd 150 years when you wouldn’t get this is you killed someone.”

If you kill many people, you can get more. The 150 years is due to the magnitude of people’s lives he’s ruined.

The prison time is excessive. The whole family should have been stripped of EVERY PENNY!!!!! Living in prison is not that bad, living in the real world with no money and no hope is the ultimate punishment. I’d like to see Madoff selling newspapers at the traffic light just so he can pay the rent of a basement apartment. But the way things are he will know that his family is doing just fine.

He’ll spend the rest of his life in prison. It’s safe to say that his fellow inmates will torment him for the rest of his days. The things that will inevitably happen to him in there could be extreme.

Madoff should not have access to any money nor should he be allowed to keep any money he works for . His sickness is money and he should not be allowed to have any .

now we have to house and feed this guy for who knows how long? he should have gotten the death penalty!!!!!

He should have been tried as a terrorist and recieved the death penalty. Its going to take something like this for our nation and these corrupt investors to finally get it. Either go by the books or face death penalty. I see no difference in the guy that kills americans or the guy who destroys americans lives.

death panelty

I think the sentence of 150 years was just. think of the sheer number of victims – each should know he will be there for sometime just for the victim.

As to wifey keeping $2.5 million? are you joking. I do not believe she earned all that money. Those millions would go a long way to helping the Madoff family’s victims at least keep a roof, maybe not the same roof, but a roof over their heads.

He did not perpetrate this all by himself. We are stupid if we let the courts/government say he did. Too much work was involved in stealing the money for bernie to have done by himself. Remember he is lazy and does not believe in hard work and earning his own money, just stealing from others. They seem to be living the same life. All that needs to go and quick, they are now in the process of trying to hide it all, so they can keep what is not theirs.

The 150 year sentence is a gift from heaven in my opinion. They should take every penny from him, his wife, and his kids that worked for him. Then instead of the life sentence, they should hang him. He is the worst kind of lowlife, he screwed everyone, even his friends.

The $2.5M that the wife gets to keep is from an inheritance that she invested in Bernie’s fund and was refunded to her by the government. It wasn’t dirty money, it was family money and she has every right to keep it. Innocent until proven guilty. If you were in her position, put there by a crooked, close family member, I’m sure you’d appreciate to have that assumption on your side before being stripped of all you hold dear.

Madoff MADdly spend all the sweats and blood earned money of thosands people. He needs to spend 1500 years if he can!

150 years should be as good as a life sentence for that no good thief. However, if were up to me I would aggressively go after every dime that could be found of his (or his wife’s) money and I would make him live under a bridge in a cardboard box with no money for as long as he might live.

she is not immune from prosecution just because she was left with 2.5 mil…..her time is coming

Is it enough? If he got caught maybe when he was in his 40’s or 50’s. He’s 71 now. Madoff was able to enjoy a very rich life during his prime which should never have been. Why not make Madoff wear an ankle bracelet and devote the rest of his life to chartiy or a minimum wage job? Join society so he can see what it’s like to suffer and work hard to make ends meet. Pay taxes like the poor and middle class too. Ruth Madoff has a chance to give back to charity by volunteering too, but I doubt we’ll ever see that. She says she’s sorry, but I don’t believe it.

I don’t think any jail time, or at least a short jail time should have been the sentence. It would be better, instead of everyone spending more money to keep him incarserated to hurt him as he hurt others. Force him to live in poverty and return to the american people some kind of service. I’m affraid that anyone that it is very difficult for me to feel sorry for anyone that has been cheated out of millions or billions of dollars. There is a very good chance the did the same to the poor people.

Its not enough because he will die long before the 150 years are served. Even still this “man” deserves to rot in prison and its comforting to know that will be getting exactly what he deserves.

The sentence reflects anger not balance and puts all the blame with Madoff and neglegts the complicity of greed by totally unreasonable investor expectations and lack of control by the state. The names Madoff is called such as “low-life” by people who have lost money shows that the high horses they claim to speak or shout from aren’t such lofty places either. After all they are accomplices in the scheme of greed. 150 years, ridiculous. It would have made more sense to make Madoff work for the most needy for the rest of his life and at least attempt to “give back” something to society that he took so shamelessly.

I think he should not receive any jail time but rather be stripped of every penny and be forced to live in the street with his wife. I am sure he will get what he deserves by those who pass him by.
If Ruth gets to keep one penny then justice has not been served.

Reduced his sentence by five years for every million he “locate” and can give back to the investors.

I am in agreement with the masses, where are the others who benefited from his scheme? They all deserve the chair, and his wife should be living in a cardboard box, like the victims….

WHAT WRONG WITH 500 YEARS???
THE JUDGE WAS TOO LENIENT!
MADOFF DESERVES EVERYTHING HE GOT AND MORE!

Of course it is enough, the SIDC is attempting to return initial funds invested. Yes what happened is terrible but people like Dana Foy from the “people effected” section suggestion he receive the amount on his last financial statement are just being absurd.

That money was NOT being earned it was a false statement. Trying to claim non-existant money from the U.S.Government is kinda a low blow…

I think he should be should foot his own bill for living in jail and ripping those people off their retirement. Why spare his family who is still living in luxury while others suffer?

Go after his family who has benefited from this Ponzi…start with Ruth’s personal possessions/gifts by Bernie if she is truly sorry as stated recently. Repo EVERYTHING and cash in.

he deserve it! with his family and closest co-workers too. This will make an other “destroyer masterminds” like Stanford to think about what could happen to them if they take ventage of others and destroy families.
What is going to hapen to ALL THE Madoff MILLIONS AND PROPERTIES? THEY HAVE TO RETURN THE MONEY TO WHOM BELONG AND PAY TAXES TOO!

Finally–a judge with some scruples and morals! But all involved should suffer the same consequences. Evil should be punished…

150 years…..for a non-violent crime and first offence I would have thought 15-20 years would be just. His mistake was causing losses to people who have money and influence. If he would have stuck to middle class investors, his sentence would have been much less, then again so would his profits. The court made it clear, do not touch the $$ of the top % or face unrealistic jail time.

Yes, people willingly gave money to madoff. Did he not invest it? YES Were they stupid? YES Are they responsible for their money? YES Did people get money back in excess of their so called investments? YES There are many people to blame. Those who blindly allow to handle their money because the greedily want more and more, are they also to blame for putting all of their money in one basket. Should he be jailed? YES Because he did not invest any of the money the SEC is not to blame, madoff and the stupid who have faith in a stranger to better handle their money than they themselves could. Should he have to repay the actual amount of money given him by the stupid. YES and any of those who got ill gotten gains should have to return them and only keep the original amount. No one should be left to profit by this scheme. Quit your whining. You were stupid and were taken advantage of. It happens all of the time. Suck it up. Don’t expect anyone else to bail you out. Madoff should be turning over all records so no one has any profit from the scam over the years. NO ONE.

I believe that he got what he deserved. i find his prison cell is to big considering what he has done to so many people it should have been smaller. And every thing that is wife owns should also be taken way. cause she knew what he was doing and did nothing to stop it. It’s hard for those that worked so hard and now has to back to work to keep their heads above water.

Well prison is too nice, need to give him one outfit no food, no home, no phone, no nothing. let him live in a cardboard box. like of of hard working people have had to do. let him live homeless in a alley

He should have been given death

Yes, he deserved 150 years. That won’t be enough to satisfy everyone that was robbed by him. But, outside this particular case, others seeing the judge hand down the maximum sentence might think twice before trying to scam folks in a similar way. If they know the justice system isn’t afraid to vigorously prosecute such thieves, others hopefully, won’t victimize people like Madoff did.

Hummmmm!Let’s just say that all of the players were convicted. hahahahaha. and then lets say by the amount of money that has been recovered is 5% of what he’s hiding. Just like his Texan Ponzi scheme buddy recently arrested, why don’t we just give them both house arrest for the rest of their lives and put some of that government owned technology to use without war and find the rest. This man has had about as much of an opportunity to bury his investors CASH before the conviction. Who else is involved in this conspiracy? Black book? Family? Friends/Associates? Congressmen, SEC, Senate, Courts? How did he get back to Park Avenue? And kept him while he was disbursing millions and probably the authority to move the rest to his cohorts livin the good life. I like the Chinese way. I think they something like a courtyard to visit as soon as possible. Somehow that might be a deterrant to the ones out there right now. I’d check my investments. I like the courtyard. Very nice way to say execution.

There’s no way he could possibly repay all of those he cheated for years. Maybe the penal system can find a way to make him pay for his incarceration.

Just add up all the retirement years he has ruined for all the thousands of investors, and send him to jail for the total. And since he can’t serve it all, distribute the rest of the years to his family – just like the financial damage will resound through the years in the families of the victims…

I think a realistic sentence is thirty years.His scheme grew to have a life of its own,which he is not as responsible for as the initial swindle itself.It’s a tragedy that he wasn’t found out a hundred billion dollars sooner.

But the ‘feeder funds’ get to keep the billions in commissions they made out of sending people’s money to Madoff?

Why?

They surely knew he was a crook…

I am apalled by some of the lame, weak, wishy-washy excuses, to let this sick, sick, devil off of the hook. To knowingly defraud SOCIETY of 65 BILLION dollars. The amount of individual losses and personal damage could never be properly summed up. If someone’s god thinks that the sentence is too harsh, he/she can make it up to him in the next life.

It should not end with Madoff. Everyone involved with this scandal should be brought to justice. And that includes his wife, his business associates, and the SEC officials that chose to look the other way, when they knew their friend was up to no good.

It was overkill, but the judge had to send a message. Now, his sons, wife and brother, plus surely others, must be held accountable.

It’s a bit harsh, considering child molesters don’t get that long of a sentence.

Bernie Madoff admitted his crimes which have destroyed the financial lives of so many. A appropriate penalty would have been his immediate hanging outside the courtroom and dispersal of his estate to his victims. What a shame this form of punishment is no longer available.

The Madoff sentence is a farce. We all know that only a Latina judge has the rich life experience and empathy to deal with the law!

He should be waterboarded until he tells where all the money is located. He is no better than the suspected terrorists at Guantonimo in Cuba. He is a financial terrorist.

The length of the sentence is not important, the prison he goes to make a big different. Remember the prison, where all the Watergate plumbers went, is like a resort equipped with honeymoon room and gulf course.
Madoff should go to a maximun security prison where there is no fun for the rest of his life.

“he’ll probably never see the light of day…”

Are you suggesting he MAY live another 151 years and get out?

RISK & GREED were at the hearts of the investors too! At what point did they cry, “OOHH your just making us too much money too ever spend!” Never! Give each investor half of his sentence and see if it is enough. Why do that? Because they stole from their family’s financial future by being equally greedy. This is not capitalism!

I am amazed and astounded that anyone is surprised or taken back by all of this. Corruption, fraud, greed, gullibility and the list goes on, has been with us throughout time. “There is nothing new under the sun” and when one sows to the the wind they reap to the whirlwind, irrespective of their standing in this matter and others like it. Madoff will pay for his crimes and those who greedily profited by their actions have paid for their lack of personal fiduciary responsibility. But sadly, history has and will continually repeat itself; our memories are short, and we’ll hear of this sort of thing hapenning again over and over.

Actually, i think he should not service any jail time because he will probably eat and sleep better than most Americans, he will have a shower every morning and 3 meals a day, a warm bed etc. What he really needs is to be put out on the streets and learn to survive like the rest of us. Wait in line to get a job, food stamps, free meals etc. Be homeless and be hungry, and worry where he might sleep tonight.

I can’t believe how many people say that investors are in part to blame becuase the didn’t diversify. The investors thought the risk they were taking was in the market and if they lost because of market results so be it. The money was not invested it was stolen. It would be the same as giving a bank teller $100 to put in your saving account and then finding out they printed a slip but put the money in their pocket. These were not “bad investments” becuase the money was never invested.

150 years’ sentence is same as life but sounds more comforting to victims enraged by his scheme. While Bernie was the mastermind, those who helped administer the fraud should also be brought to justice. I am afraid this sentence is just another cover-up.

Let me try and understand this clearly. His money is gone and now the taxpayer’s will house, feed and provide healthcare to Madoff until he dies. The tax payer and uninsured lose again…

How many years did his accountant and wife get?????

This is simply incredible excession. For cheating people out of their money, you get this. For ending another person’s life, you get at least 40. Insane.

Madoff’s crimes are as nothing compared to what the Congress, Bush and Obama, and the Federal Reserve are doing to us all right now!

Frank Brady

50, 150, same thing but the message that this is intolerable and will not be handed leniently is crucial.. he hurt a lot of people directly and millions indirectly, the equivalent of financial mass murder or PLUTOCIDE – my coin

I’m sorry to see his wife get to keep $2.5 million in dirty money. She should be stripped of every penny she has that came from criminal activity.

If Madoff were a Mafia capo instead of a con man, how much money from drug trafficking and illegal gambling would be left to her? His crimes ruined many lives, just like drugs and gambling, but even worse, his victims were innocent investors.

Ruth Madoff should be allowed to keep only what she can prove she legally earned for herself – though I suspect everything she has came from crime.

Too bad he now gets taxpaper paid room and board and medical care. Senior health plans for his victims should be that good. Taking Ruth Madoff down to $2.5 million for the rest of her life is also better than his victims. How come the head of Worldcom and his wife were punished worse for less?

People who invested with Madoff knew exactly what they were doing. They were greedy and wanted to risk more to make more. It was a too good of a deal. Now, they are crying about losing their money. They should have invested in bonds, CDs, treasuries and made less and stop being lauzy loosers.

“If you invest your money your are responsible.” Two problems with this statement: First, what occurred was not an investment with risk, but a crime. Second, the regulatory agency that was supposed to be looking for such crime ignored the very clear warning. Madoff deserves all 150 years.

I am sure many people would have liked to see Mr. Madoff suffer a harsher demise, but what else is there? He will die in prison, in shame and loneliness without his ill-gotten luxuries. If we let even one judge dole out a harsher sentence than the law permits, we invite disastrous uncertainty into our justice system. I, for one, think the system worked here.

I think It will not help people that had put “sweaty money” on his funds…they will not receive anything and this trial will not prevent people from being greedy…
FREE MADOFF !!!

150 or 20 years, he will be dead or almost dead. Any money that he, his wife or children that they did not earn should be stripped from them. I will agree that the investors are partly at fault. So shame on them also.

I do believe he should get the full 150 years. This job was too big for one person, printing all those false reports, mailing checks from accounts that did not exsist. Who was doing all this when he was gone for months. What about the government officials that looked the other way when they were told. Keep an eye on where the wife goes shortly and I think the lawyers will come out shortly will an illness asking he be let out for treatment. Of course the treatment will end up outside the country one night.

His wife should absolutely pay for it too. Her money and other assets should be taken away and she should face the same life many conned investors are facing now. Madoff put many families into poverty, so it would be just fare if his wife and sons share the pain.

150 years is the adequate amount of jail time, however, the type of jail he is being assigned to is NOT adequate. In addition, he should be forced to work every day and turn over his ‘pay’ (a ridiculous concept anyway) to the victim’s fund. This is what he has done to many people – time to find out what it’s like. He should be working the rock pile or draining a Louisiana swamp along with the SEC folks who overlooked this.

No one is defending Madoff, but those of you who insist on the death penalty or that the punishment is not stiff enough make me ashamed to call myself American. By your standards we’d be a fascist dictatorship relatively quickly. This country needs to readdress it’s priorities, and quickly.

Let us not forget, that it’s just over one thousand people, and if you lost 100K, you’ll get it back from the money recovered and the SIPC. Educate yourselves on this before you go spouting this kind of bile.

It changes the lifestyle of the rich, it doesn’t ruin anyone.

It is a mistake to put him in prison. He should have been forced to earn the money back to the investors.Put him to work!

Take all his assets and leave his family broke and divide it up amongst the victims and lock him in a room with his victims and let them finish him off. THATS JUSTICE!!!

I wish him a long long life.

I don’t get it. You can do this and get 150 years but if you kill somebody you don’t get this. Where are the values that americans once had?

It is absolutely not possible that his children did not know. When are we going after their massive wealth?

If this had happened in Japan or ancient Rome, Madoff would have committed suicide, partly as an apology to all those lives he literally destroyed, and partly because he could not live with the shame. But the question arises: “Does Bernie Madoff truly feel shame, or is it just empty words that he is mouthing?”

Yes what Mr. Madoff did was horribly wrong and he should and will suffer the consequences for his actions. However at some point those that were defrauded need to take responsibility for theirs and realize that they too were greedy. The old saying “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” should have been applied to those who chose to invest. If it looks to good to be true then it probably is. It is high time that Americans stop blaming others for what they themselves have made the choice to do and learn how to be responsible on a personal level for their own actions and choices and stop putting ALL the blame on others. We all are individually responsible for ourselves and truely can blame no one else for our own actions and choices. Maybe that is a hard thing to swallow for most and they in turn find it easier to put all the blame on others so that they themselves can feel at ease.

The 150 years sentence woulde be good enouhg if ALL of the ill-gotten assets had been taken away. ALL of them, including the monies left for his wife.

He should have got 350 years, and the money and assets his “Wife” gets to keep, should be taken away also. She should be “SO BROKE” she would have to go stand in line at the food stamp office just to put food in her mouth.

The sentence sounds a tad ridiculous (the judge may as well have given him 30 – he won’t make it past that), but since it’s basically a life sentence, it seems pretty fair to me. I don’t really understand the people coming up with elaborate punishment schemes involving something like “eye for an eye.” We are not living by Hammurabi’s Code. Whatever happened to “no cruel or unusual punishment?”

The death penalty is not enough. He ruined numerous lives, curtailed and in some cases eliminated the good works of the many charities and foundations that invested with him affecting even more innocent and truly needy people, and dealt a blow to the basic tenet of an open, capitalistic society. He was not insane, stupid, or just plain unlucky. He willfully was a fraud who did not get in over his head but tried to keep it going as long as possible so that he and his family could enjoy a truly undeserved lavish lifestyle.

There isn’t a punishment severe enough to punish someone so greedy, so cruel AS TO DESTROYED THOUSANDS OF PEOPLES LIVES FOR MORE MONEY THAN HE AND TWENTY GENERATIONS COULD EVER SPEND. He never,ever intended to increase their assets. He knew what he was doing was illegal

He should be sentenced to hard labor for life and every dollar earned should go to the people who lost money. Make him work 12+ hour days for 7 days a week.

I think that is TOO much of a punishment. It is a capitalistic society. If you invest your money you are responsible. Those investors were greedy to run after “stable” 10% of return from Madoff not diversifying! That is their fault, they paid for the risk! You put $5 mln in a single fund because you can gain couple of extra % ?! Plus everybody lost in this economy. Why feel sorry for Madoff’s inverstors?!! Some people’s losses are not returnable.

150 years is too much. He should get 3-5 years and get out of jail.

It is not socialism, it is capitalism!!! Think before investing! They risked, they paid. Why Madoff go to jail?

Now arrest all the others involved. If you got a 15% dividend for 10 years you lost nothing. If you actually did lose sue the S.E.C. for the amount not recovered.

Madoff’s crime was not only that he scammed investors, but that he scammed his own. To invest with Madoff you had to “know” somebody and have “access”. As with a dirty cop getting the worst because he was a cop and went bad, Madoff scammed his many friends in the Jewish cimmunity and many others. He will be especially scorned in financial circles. His actions affected the whole market and therefore affected even those who had no direct investments with him. An act in wartime might just deserve the death penalty. He essentially vandalized his own neighborhood. Some of those should have known better but were just greedy…..fi it sounds to good to be true……

150 years is fair but all of his wife’s assets should be taken away too. The wife is lying not to know what he was doing…my gut feels this.
Never keep all your eggs in one basket!
A con man comes in all forms and ages!

I do not believe there is a man-made sentence to fit this crime. To willfully rob thousands of people and send them all into financial and emotional desperation, is a horrific crime again humanity. I haven read as yet that his sentence is “without parole” – it should have been added. However, God will add it.

Mr. Madoff owned up to his wrong like a man should. For that society should be grateful. God does not ignore that kind of contrition from anyone.

Now we need to give the same sentence to all of the government officials who have done the same thing with social security.

We should make a trade for Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

150 is sufficient but it should be a prison of HARD LABOR and no access to his wealth. I feel terrible for his family but he must pay.

My family was scammed by a man named Richard Basamajian in the tune of $900,000 up until the end of 1999. Basamajian is in state custody now but he is due to be released soon. Basamajian not only destroyed our family, but hundreds of other families as well. Many victims were older people and now have passed away, financially broken. When Basamajian is released from prison he and his family will continue to live comfortably (because he has hidden all of the money). Mr. Madoff, I hope this eventually sinks into your heart and, for your family too, that all of you will be hated greatly. If you feel that these burning emotions are irrelevant because you have more money than anybody else, then you are psychopathic and you do deserve to rot in prison. Or, prove your worth, return the money… A dollar a day for 150 years is $54,750, not quite enough.

I sure hope we do not see his legal team lining up for an appeal. They themselves claim that 12 years is equal to a life sentence – getting from 150 to 12 will take an awful lot of appealing – give it up!

Our tax payers still need to pay to feed this bastard!

He should be executed

There is a lot of greed in this country. The sentence seems too harsh, even for severity of the case. Even murderers and rapist do less time than this man. That just shows how crap our judicial system really is. Money speaks louder than lives.

This sentence is just another in a string many that shows how flawed our justice system really is. In what logic does the value of money hold higher ground then the life or well being of a person. Why is it that a drunk driver that kills someone gets a few thousand in fines and maybe, maybe a few years in prison. But, someone like Madoff who swindled people out of money, granted alot of money, but its just money, gets sentenced to 1.5 centuries in prison. Just like, how does a woman in Minnesota get a fine of over a million dollars for illegally downloading a couple dozen songs. Again, what has our society turned into, where money is more valuable then life itself.

He’s really lucky he’s going to do his time in the US and not a North Korean labor camp.

iF HE ADMIITED HIS WIFED CRIED HERSELF TO SLEEP OVER THIS FRAUD, I HAVE TO DRAW THE CONCLUSION THAT SHE IS GUILTY AND SHOULD NOT BE FREE TO CONTINUE TO ENJOY THE FRREDOM AND MONEY.

No one has explained why Mr. Madoff ever confessed to his crime in the first place. Could it be that “cruel and unusual punishment” to his family was threatened unless he came clean? “150 years” (out with the next Presidential pardon) seems doable in comparison.

The real punishment will come before God at the Gates. For now, he gets to retire in this world looking through gates.

Definately not too harsh. If this doesn’t warrant the Maximum Sentance, then I don’t know what would…

Everybody knew Madoff was a crook, except the SEC of course. All the “victims” willingly invested with him because they thought they pull a fast one on everybody else. Madoff does insider deals, Madoff has connections, Madoff knows something…What they didn’t know is that the joke was on them. Cry me a river.
There’re a bunch of other criminals like Madoff out there. Mozilo, Paulson, Prince, Thain etc. those people caused trillions in damage and all taxpayers had to participate in their scheme while in Madoff’s scheme participation was strictly voluntary.

Come now, there are rapists and murderers who go free in a few years for good behavior in prison. Their victums had no choice. Madoff’s “victums” are all consenting adults and supposedly business persons. They had a choice. Who told them to “put all their eggs in one basket” as the saying goes. He didn’t point a gun at them and force them to give him all their money. They are just as greedy as he is. Our judicial system stinks. The law protects the real criminals , the rapists and the murderers.

Prison cells aren’t small enough for thieves like Madoff. They should make him work at a fast food restaurant, cooking fries everyday. However, we shouldn’t stop with Madoff, we need to investigate and expose the rest of the corporate millionaire thieves, the ones who have sold out all of our American jobs.

My bet is that Madoff will take his life before serving much time. Rich people would rather commit suicide then live as a middle class citizen.

As one writer said, Madoff and others like him (Jeffrey Skilling, etc.) should be putting their skills to work running businesses whose entire purpose is to pay back victims. It is a waste to house him in prison.
Now could we move on to the Richard Fulds of the world whose actions percipitated a world-wide economic disaster? Seems to me there is a vilolation of a fiduciary trust with Lehman, AIG and a bunch of other companies whose former CEOs are using my 401(k) to pay for their landscaping.

I guess he could not have received more thaan the “maximum” but it would have been nice simply to give him 300 years asa warning to all the other disspicable low lifes who scam people out of the lives and futures.

I can’t believe there are people actually defending this scumbag. He misrepresented himself and in so doing was easily able to convince his victims to invest with him. I do agree there is some ‘buyer beware’ lesson to be learned here, but the crux of the matter is he lied about who or what he was and was doing. And because some people were able to see some kind of ‘return’, the whole scheme seemed legit.

Personally I’m with the people who thinks hard labor should have accompanied this sentence. Anyway I’ll end by saying ‘good riddance to bad rubbish!’.

No sentence for this level of thieving and scheming will ever suffice. He should have to face each client, and listen to the hardships he caused. Also, he should be required to teach federal agencies (SEC, FBI, CIA, Homeland Security) how he got away with his Ponzi scheme for so many years. If Madoff got away with it, then others are, too.

I don’t think a time limit (no matter the years) is right. He should get out
once he has paid every penny owed to every investor (including interest).
It’s prison time till then.

I just can’t believe that one person was able to do all this for so long. To me this all smells like he took the maximum penalty and all the blame to protect others who were involved.

I think he should be allowed to lessen his sentence by disclosing where the money is. A 100 year deduction for disclosing where 50 billion is seems right.

Have FCC in court for allowing this to happen.

150 years is a little bit too much for a man that age. He has stolen a lot of money, yes everyone agrees to that but thats just too much. I personally think that they could reduce the sentence term and let him pay back some of the money. No sum of money can buy a person’s life.

I think 150 years is fine as long as he can not get out early! Also I think his wife should not get a dime of any money they have, in fact she should be behind bars as he, is seeing that they are a couple and shared the wealth they should share the sentence.

150 years to include hard labor just might be enough, and everything he passed to his wife should be sold to help pay back what he stole. Now I want to know who in the SEC is going to jail for looking the other way!

The sentence is completely justified and so is seizing of Mr. Madoff’s assets. $2.5 for his wife is enough to keep her in comfort, and I’m sorry for that.

It is horrifying that many people think that what this guy did to RICH people is worse that what murders child molesters and rapists do. This country, the judicial system, and the media should be ashamed. These people were trying to get richer, not protect themselves, most of them will get over %50 of what they lost back. I’m sorry they can’t buy a new boat. I’m sorry they won’t be able to afford a gold plated toilet. A little over one thousand rich people suffer and the everyone is up in arms. Who does this serve? It says “Don’t mess with rich people” It doesn’t serve the vast majority of the people. It doesn’t help those who have lost their jobs. It doesn’t fix the economy. It doesn’t DO ANYTHING.

he should be hung on national tv!

150 years is a joke for Madoff but hopefully it will serve as a deterent for other ponzi schemers. There really isnt much the court can do but hand out the max sentence. I dont know why people think Madoff should work for the victims, what would he be qualified to do besides steal other people’s money? Everyone’s outrage should now be pointed at the SEC and the other regulatory agencies. To me, those folks should be indicted as well. At the end of the day, no punishment can match the pain and devastation Madoff caused. All we can do is learn from our mistakes and move on. I would like to see Madoff’s family get indicted as well. There’s no way he acted alone.

Hilarious! He’s got sooooo much money stashed overseas, his family will still APPEAR to live poorly, or modestly, but it would not surprise me if they all moved to Argentina, or SW Africa (with that other crook on the lamb) or somewhere. So easy to get a whole new identity, and a little plastic surgery. What TRULY surprised me, is, he shafted his own people, so badly….which is UNpardonable.

People, it’s not 150 years for 1 count, it’s 150 years for 11 counts of fraud which each carry a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. Is it ridiculous that all heinous crimes are not enforced as strictly? Of course, but it’s impossible to do so. Also, the investors weren’t all white-collar workers (Oh how quickly we all like to bring class lines into this and point fingers and claim conspiracies), CNN carried several stories just last week of a handful of the many average joes that were swindled. Some of them didn’t even know that they had invested in Madoff’s funds at all because their money was invested under the control of an investment manager that made that choice.

There will be no real justice until his wife and sons are also indicted and sent to jail. His so-called apology to his wife and her letter stating she was betrayed are all a concerted effort on their part to protect his family from being charged. Yet, his wife withdrew millions from their account the day before he was indicted and they were both sending valuable items to family members to avoid them being confiscated by federal authorities. Contrite? Apologetic? I don’t think so! Madoff and his wife and sons all need to be in jail for the rest of their lives for the damage they did to so many innocent victims.

SOooooo. What kind of sentence should we give the government goons for imposing the social security ponzi scheme? Or how about every wealth sapping taxation scheme that simply redirects money from the greater group to the well connected smaller group?

Stop messing around folks! Elect ONLY SMALL GOVERNMENT, FISCAL CONSERVATIVES. (And I don’t mean the run of the mill Republicans who run up the deficit like they were Democrats. I mean guys and gals who believe in the Constitution.)

It is time for real change.

150yrs with no chance of parole, why waste public money housing this guy, just put him in a chair and pull the switch. He does not deserve to have a dime of public money spent on his sorry a$$.

Perhaps the ‘time’ should have been shared. Why give it all to Madoff ?
Surely there are other deserving bankers out there who warrant 10 years or so. But that makes too much sense.

The lynch mob howls! Seriously, it’s more than enough. After all, it’s just money. This is what greed leads to.

I think it’s the right amount and I agree with the judge’s rational for handing out 150 years. This was not a victimless crime and this is not a man who deserved leniencey. As the judge pointed out, noone submitted letters attesting to Maddoff’s character, because he has none. There are retirees in their 80s and 90s who are bereft of any income beyound social security, because the erroneously trusted this man. Some have had to go find jobs to support themselves. The destruction he has brought on his victims, especially the less wealthy, is devastating and irreversible. Many of the older victims will never see any restitution. Those who are not as old may see pennies on the dollar if they do see any compensation. This man and his family lived an extravagant lifestyle beyond belief on stolen money. No, I don’t think his sentence was harsh, absurd or unreasonable. Hopefully, he will die in prison so the remainder of his sentence will be continue for eternity in hell.

The maximum sentence is enough, he should never see the light of day as a free man again..taking all his assets adds more justice to the sentence…although his wife was left with too much money..why should she have $2.5M when his victims have nothing.

To those of you who are blaming the investors…do you really think this is their fault? I have very little money. I’ll never be rich. And, of course, I often envy the wealthy. But, seriously?? If you had a chance to make what you thought was a great investment, and you trusted this guy…naive yes…as guilty as him..no way! It’s like date rape! Girl goes out with guy she knows and thinks she can trust. Things get out of control. She says no. He won’t stop. Does that make it her fault? Come on people…wealthy or not, these people are victims. I do agree that there are many others that were involved, and they should also be serving a sentence.

I would NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, place my life savings with a “solo practitioner.” I’ve known that for years.

Fidelity

’till I die.

M.Stewart-Baton Rouge, LA

Some of these posts are outrageous! He “has murdered people’s lives?” The level of outrage and hatred here for a man who swindled people out of money? He did not rob!! People willingly gave him their money. Draining someone’s life savings through fraud is NOT “murder,” yet people think this man is worthy of death. What he did was horrible,yes, but let’s keep things in perspective. And don’t be so stupid. For every one man like this that’s caught there are 20 more hiding behind him. Stop being so inflamatory and gullible, and see the big picture!!!

I hope he becomes someone’s bitch in prison, hopefully of a relative of someone he scammed!
He is a true greedy piece of human garbage!
Now they should go after his wife!

I think it is a fair sentence. I am actually happy to see a person like this brought to justice. I learned at a very young age victims only receive the justice they can afford.

Instead of having him sit in a cell I think they should make him do some ditch digging or something. You know… put him to work. –Do something useful.

Please don’t think for a second that this sentence would change anything with respect to the SEC actions as I can tell you that I’m a preferred witness and victim of an international investment fraud about which I have the financial markets supervisory authorities such as the SEC since almost three years now with absolutely no reaction on their part; even so there where absolutely agreeing with me on the criminal substance and character of this international fraud. All I heard from them was that there was not enough proof so they couldn’t do anything…….. instead of doing their work by investigating and assembling such proof, instead of waiting to there are more and more victims…… it’s a total shame and I have to admit that I’m totally stunned by the lack of interest that have shown indeed.

It doesn’t seem possible for M to have done this alone. Hopefully the others involved are being prosecuted.

What is his life expectancy in prison? Is he suicidal?

Do you think one of the inmates will get bank account numbers from M?

Sentencing Madoff for 150 years is not sufficient to stop future ponzi schemes or promise of unusual returns. Rules/regulations MUST be in place to suspect/find any unusual returns/promise to innocent investors.

I’m completely disgusted by the majority of posts here. How can any American advocate the death sentence or life in prison for an investment scheme and then sit by while convicted murderers are given lighter sentences? Countless lives ruined? Oh please! You mean hundreds of investors that made poor investments? How on earth did money become more important than life?

As someone who worked in a prison for 27 years, I can tell you that it will just be a matter of time before Madoff is assaulted. He will be a punk for someones bunk and will assume the duties of a convicts “wife”. He will have to pay for protection. That is normally done through money orders being sent to the “protector’s) outside family or outside account of some type. Whatever money he will be allowed to keep in his “trust account” (prison account) will undoubtedly be used to purchase items for his “protector” and others. My hope is that he will be thoroughly humiliated. All his wealth will do him absolutely no good in the can.

Give him to Cheny. Let him get a confession out of him.

If this was in South Africa today,
a) the case would take 5 years to get to court
b) prosecution papers would be lost
and c) somehow an A.N.C. high flyer would get the criminal off.

We should have Middle Eastern punishment for guys like this….the thieves..How many lives has he destroyed? Take everything from the family on let them collect Welfare after jail time. Off with their hands, then tar a feather them all!

Yes, 150 years is fair. Such a harsh sentence should deter other ponzi schemes from getting started.

150 yrs. may be “enough” to serve as a deterrent to any future schemers, however, the way I see it, this sentence is symbolic. He may be housed in a prison, but as far as prisons go, he’ll still have access to to wealth he will use to “buy” himself more privileges and better living conditions. Let’s face it, money talks…even behind bars! It’s a shame the judge couldn’t have sentenced him to exchange places with the two U.S. Journalists who were sentenced to “hard labor” in a North Korean prison camp. That would be more “justice” than what he’ll ever get in a “white collar” U.S. prison.

Whether Madoff lives or dies should have no bearing in the length of his sentence. I personally think that as long as you have Med Clubs for the rich and dungeons for the poor is where we should focus as a society. The pain that Madoff caused is much greater than taking a life.

jail? he will be getting free housing, free 3 meals a day, free & clean sheets daily, & no need to worry about laundry, does that sound like punishment? ! !
he needs to be sent a 3rd world country to work in camps helping the poor survive! working long hours, no food, no water, sweltering heat, endless working days & nights just trying to survive, sleeping on dirt & using rocks as pillows THAT sounds like something he deserves!
He will be living better in jail then many of his victims are living now! families have been left homeless because of him! he deserves to struggle to survive, he deserve to live in fear for the rest of his days & nights! nothing less.

No. I’d like to see him spend those 12 years working to pay back all the people he stole from, rather than taking up space in a jail and using more of our money.

Should have been accompanied by keeping him hungry and thirsty for few days to the point that he has to beg on streets for food, 150 whips and public humiliation and yes.. no CNBC/Bloomberg for this wise guy.
A smart and educated person who behaves unethically to the point that it destroys lives of many deserves harsher treatment.

This man should NOT be in jail. He should instead be released and used to help the FBI uncover other similar type frauds.

I can’t believe some of the wealthiest people in the world were so greedy trying to make more money, at rates they knew were too good to be true.

What this man did was wrong, but the entire financial system is corrupt, he simply followed in their footsteps. After all you do reap what you sow.

This sentence was wrong, but I hope he now has peace. Just awaiting his final days.

May God be with him, and may he forgive him.

As long as he still has his balls it isn’t enough.

its easy to blame a sociopath for his crimes but harder for his *investors* to accept blame for their greed and failure to exercise judgment.

If you are greedy and dishonest yourself you will alwys be a willing victim of a guy like Madoff.

In my 72 years I have known many people like Madoff, although not

This sentence is just and fair. Most people are only able to save money for retirement at great sacrifice. Madoff’s actions have ruined the lives of numerous unfortunate people. Everyone in the financial world now need to be put on notice that this is inappropriate and that they will share a simular fate. Except we can regain confidence in our financial system our country will never recover economically.

Even 20 years would have been enough for the crime. The investors are not without fault here. They were very greedy! And didn’t your mother ever tell to to not put all your eggs in one basket? Or that anything that sounds too good to be true, isn’t. These people may have been rich, but they are really stupid…or at least without any common sense.

Why it took so long to uncover this scam ? Was it becoz he was chairman of Nasdaq and nobody dared to touch him ? There are more questions than answers after this one and half centuries’ sentence. Regulators did not even ask to see his per annum portfolios. That is why investors’ monies were “made off”.

Not nearly enough. Go after his wife and kids and those people he send money and jewelry to while on bail.

And then go after those federal regulators who dismissed the warnings that something was amiss.

It’s about time a “white collar criminal” received the same punishment as anyone else.

too harsh. He should have recieved some jail time and made to work for the victims to get the money back. 150 years is for repeat violent offenders, not for crooks. He was the largest crook ever, but still just a very smart thief. No way no justify “he stole my money, lock him up for life”. To me, clearly a case were we should have been far more creative with the punishment. Jail time, then he must work for the victims, cap his earnings, think of something, this 150 years is just lynch mob justice. If i were a victim here, i’d want to see him in prison for 10 years making him work to repay me all the time he is in and lifetime community service and still work to repay me for life. I lost a ton of money to wall street, who can i point my finger at? Myself. The legal gambling venue we call wall street took my cash. I guess give em all 150 years. The laws of this messed up country make it illegal to gain any inside onfo, we must “study and make educated decisions”. what a joke. you mean roll the dice and take your chances. you did, i did and we all lost and were decieved. try to gain an advantage and they lock you up. this whole things stinks. Madooff is at least off the street, why don’t i feel any safer????

I fail to see how Mr. Madoff could get any sentence worse than the one he got. He will die in prison and personally I would rather not live if I knew I was never going to see the light of day as a free man. I will be interested to see what others say because there is no worse sentence in my opinion than life, particularly if you have been used to living the good life.

Ok, several things..
1) History has show that what will happen here is he will spend a couple of years in jail, develop a so called ‘illness’ and be released on compassionate grounds then make a miraculous recovey once released.
2) For those saying murderers can get out in 7 years …. that shows the flaw in sentencing of killers, not of people like Madoff.
3) For those he said he only stole money and it was the investors fault… He stole billions of dollars, over decades. This was not a one off, simple theft or whatever. And the investors believed this was a valid investment opportunity, they can be called greedy if you like but no different than those that buy stocks or look for the best bank interest rate etc.

I was cheering when the 150-year sentence was handed down. Now go after the wife, the sons, and anyone else who was involved in the day-to-day operation. Madoff could not have done all this alone. Someone else has dirty hands, as well, and needs to be held accountable.

Three rules for prison. (1)Keep your mouth shut. (2)Don’t borrow anything.(3)Don’t drop the soap. All that money and you still get to be Bubba’s prison wife. What a hard luck story!

Look, I’m not defending this guy but I’m completely OUTRAGED and DISGUSTED over this sentence. This mans so called “victims” were all ADULTS who had a CHOICE to hand over their money to this man, while children who are raped and murdered HAD NO CHOICE!!!!! Where are these long sentnces for the scum who truly deserve them????? Anyone can always go out and earn more money but you can’t bring back a dead child!!!!! I’ll take losing every material thing I have over being 8 Year old Jessica Lundsford (just to name one) who was buried alive by a man who never should have been released from prison in the first place!!!!! I’m so disgusted with this country and our ridiculous laws.

No. I’d like to see him spend those 12 years working to pay back all the people he stole from, rather than taking up space in a jail and using more of our money.

I think he should be exiled to a poverty ridden African country where he is forced to live like a local. He should have to scrounge for food and water. He should be denied medical and all the common luxuries that even a prisoner receives out here. He should die by suicide or a slow and painful death from poor medical with no dignity.

Well, some ppl here have asked for a death sentence and some have told Life sentence is good enough…but the question is what are the avg. Joe’s who invested with him going to get back. Agreed, it was a mistake on their part to invest without finding much about the scheme that this guy was running but how much does anybody get to find out about any schemes devised by so called wall street geniuses. Alternately, this guy should be made to work for free with no salary and whatever comes out of it should be distributed to those who suffered. This guy is supposed to be a finance genius right? Make him live for the rest of his life in a homeless shelter, feed him the same food that homeless gets and ask him to work for his victims for the rest of his life…

this sentence is ridiculous.. pointless first of all because of his life expectancy but not to mention murdering someone carries a much less sentence. Money can be made back. not a life.

Does the sentence undo the damage? Will it make the next “Madoff” decide not to swindle? If it doesn’t do either of these, all it does is spend taxpayer dollars to care for him for the rest of his life. What of all the Brokers who failed their Due Diligence in recommending clients invest in Madoff? Shouldn’t they suffer consequences also?

I think it was a whole basket full of greed and not just him wheres the other players

Laura I hardly think his victims are eating out of garbage cans> His “victims” were all people who had “Milions” to lose in the first place. If they invested evry penny with Madoff they deserve what they got. We all know the old saying never put all your eggs in one basket.

His wife’s statement rings empty and insincere. There is no way I’ll ever believe she knew nothing about his crime nor that she had no part, whether direct participation or silent complicity. The same thing goes for his children. Authorities need to monitor her lifestyle and activities for the rest of her life. He thinks he made a noble gesture by accepting life in prison to save his family, but it would have been better for all the victims if he had just come completely clean. Everyone knows there is more to the story and that just rubs salt in the many wounds he and his collaborators have inflicted. He should have received the death penalty because his crime will most certainly impose a premature death sentence to some of his victims.

This sentence would be better served if HIS WIFE was convicted also. She is the real brains behind this. And don’t believe for a SECOND that she doesn’t have a Billionaire’s stash in some easily accessible area to LIVE THE LIFE!! This entire family KNEW and profited.
Well, Bernie will have FANTASTC MEMORIES to ponder while he nests. Maybe he will live Al’s lifestyle in his ???? (prison)???

Another example of the American difference between the wealthy and the poor. America prides itself on trying to judge fair and equal, but what does this statement tell us?

Madoff get gets 150 years for swindling some rather wealth Americans, but the whole Enron Team received less than 100 years. Is this really fair? Oh wait….. Enron cheated the blue collar workers and Madoff cheated the white collar investors, so it’s more damaging. I get it now… I think we all do!

Stop waisting tax payer money process crimes where the really dummies are those falling for the “stain on the shirt” tricks. They followed the “too good to be true” and got burned. Live with it. Let’s focus the real criminals.

As bad as what Madoff did was, how can he get 150 years, while the guy that raped a 4 year old received a MONTH…clear evidence once again that this country cares more about the dollar than it’s children.

Yet another example of a problematic judicial system. Now all of us get to pay for him to sit in jail.

How can you say that he doesn’t deserve to spend the rest of his life in jail? He’s committed financial murder of countless investors. Many of these people lost their ENTIRE life savings, their ENTIRE retirement investments. Their golden years were stolen from them by Maddoff and now he’ll get his golden years stolen as well. Don’t let the number fool you. Anything more than 12 years and he would more than certainly die in jail. The number is simply a deterrent to future crooks from walking in Maddoff’s footsteps. I sure hope it’s effective.

I agree, Jeff. The chair is appropriate.Now our taxes go to keeping him in jail for the rest of his life.

The punishment does not fit the crime. I belive Madoff has, at most, 20 years to live so in effect he was only given a twenty year sentence, which is way too short. I am sure there are people in jail who did far less damage than Madoff who are serving more time then Madoff will.

Therefore, sentencing in this case should have been unique and I feel the judge/prosecutor should have been more imaginative with the sentencing. I would have recommended that he receive no jail time but rather force him to live on the street as a homeless person so he could experience what many of his investors are fearing. He would only be allowed to sleep within a five block radius of the Lipstick Building (his old office) so all his friends/investors will see him and maybe he could become a tourist attraction like the Urban Cowboy. Also, everyday he should be forced to work and any money he makes should be used to payback his investors. If he can’t find a job then he should panhandle or become a squeege guy.

It should also be a crime for any of his family members/friends/agents on behalf of anyone he knows to provide him with food and/or shelter and he should be forced to live off the kindness of strangers.

My sentiments exactly, DE. This is overly harsh! It is greed that made some move all of their life earnings into Madoff’s company and now they must deal with the greed. Sorry but why should he lose everything just because you trusted him and willingly gave him your money! Deal with it! He would have gotten a slap on the wrist if he had stolen from average joes!

150 years is a symbol to others but just the beginning. Why hasn’t the whole financial organization has their doors locked, accounting books seized and assets frozen. Where are the senators, representatives? Why are employees still without censure? Find the assets and restore the clients.

This has been wrong from the beginning. The Madoffs allowed to sit in their condo, ship jewelry as holiday gifts, transfer funds???

If Ruth Madoff and family were in jail, Bernie would be more likely to explain where funds are. Are we overwhelmingly stupid?

Lawyers pack our government corridors, write our laws, clog our courtrooms, have violent criminals walking the streets and crooks like Bernie Madoff, family, employees and business associates still intact.

It’s time to clean up this system.

Yes it is a fair sentence. Now can we get the bankers and mortgage brokers who cheated the homeowners?

I’m not comparing, or debating, the pathetic judicial system that releases murderers and rapists. I’m commenting on Madoff alone. I think the system, in general, is broken and needs a complete overhaul. Look at the “Sex Offender’s Listing” … ok, thanks, but I’d like to know if a murderer is living next to me, too. Oh, and those who committed forced entry robberies, or kidnapping, or ….
silly, short-sighted legislators.

What did Madoff do that Our government is not doing as I type this? Social security/Ponzi scheme anyone?

I think the 150 year sentence is pointless. What good does that do anyone? As a society, we now have to pay for the cost of his prison sentence for as long as he lives…not to mention the medical costs he’s sure to incur as he ages in prison. A real punishment would have been to force him to face each victim one-on-one (in hand-cuffs and prison attire) while he personally hands them a share of his seized assets. At the end of his daily humiliation and apology tour, he can hit the jail cell. He should have to face his victims and his crime every day until all assets are dispursed instead of being tucked away in a jail cell.

They gave him the maximum sentence allowed by law… of course it was enough.

As far as his assets, they’re being divided among those he swindled. As for his wife, she was also an investor and that is why she’s getting $2.5 million. It seems likely she didn’t know what was going on since she invested an inheritance she had from her parents in the firm.

As far as people being completely wiped out by this, it’s a tough lesson to learn not to put all your eggs in one basket… As much as it sucks, I find it hard to have too much sympathy for someone that invests 100% of their life’s savings in one place.

Regardless if they sentenced him to 150 years or even death…It will never make up for the countless lives he ruined because of his theft.

You know Bernie may of taken all that money, but it was just as much the investors fault as it was his..did anybody hold a gun to the investors heads and say gimmie money or you die…! The investors were greedy and wanted way more then they could get and instead of looking closer CHOSE to ignore it. So please the investors are just as much to Be-lame. My point is he may of taken all the money, but it was freely given and nobody seemed to care at the time they ignored their common sense and pretended like nothing would happen and NOW they are shocked.

I think he should be made to pay the money back to all the people. His being able to hold back some money for his family is not fair to the people who were scammed. He should be made to live on whatever the prison system allows and not on money that rightfully is not his. A normal family that has a husband incarcerated gets nothing. Why should his family?

The length of the sentence should be sufficient as long as he is never allowed out in the general public again, and he should have everything of value he owns taken away and left penniless considering many of his victims have been left with nothing.

At 71, I think 150 years is unrealistic and sends the wrong message. Perhaps, he could be “convinced” to inform the district attorney where the money went prior to starting his prison sentence. I cannot accept the fact that his family knows what happened to the money and is not being held as co-conspirators. Billions do not just evaporate into thin air. Where is the outrage among the middle class who have lost so completely all they have saved?

Madoff should have 7 days to think about it, and then put to death so we don’t have to feed him and pay for his medical bills…

Are you people completely insane? Murders can walk free after several years, but this man you want to crucify? Don’t get me wrong, he clearly deserves to be punished – but he got a life sentence for stealing money. Lets not forget he also owned up to it; he wasn’t caught. I freely admit that he irreversibly altered hundreds of lives, but they are not without fault in the matter. They made a choice, a poor decision and he took advantage of it. Giving a 71 year old man a life sentence for robbery when rapist and murders walk free – and furthermore having the audacity to claim it is not harsh enough, that is criminally negligent. Who do you want as the next sacrificial lamb?

150 years in prison (or whatever portion of it Madoff serves before he dies) only results in the taxpayers keeping him alive. For the sheer immensity of the crimes that he committed, the number of lives that he ruined and the extent of the damage he did, and to send a message that is going to be heard loud and clear by the next scammer/fraud artist that might otherwise decide to pull off the same or similar crime, Madoff deserved nothing less than the death penalty.

It is only fair because capital punishment wasnt an alternative. He has literally murdered peoples lives and continues to have his.

I think disgusting, sub-human behavior like this should be returned in-kind. Not with a useless 150-year sentance that is 10 times his remaining life expectancy. While it sends a message of possible deterence to those who would follow, it means nothing to him. He stole lives and futures from countless people. Maybe the Chinese Government’s stance on capital punishment of corporate dirt bags has a place in the US? We’ve all seen how the disgusting greed of some have brought this country to it’s knees. I hope the FBI doesn’t rest in it’s investigation because I doubt Madoff acted alone.

Is it enough? Beyond the death penalty there isn’t much more that can be done TO HIM. If by some miracle his still alive at the sprightly age of 221. then by all means let him live the remaining days as a free man.

However his wife, sons and high ranking employee’s definitely need further attention.

Murderers, child molesters, and rapists get less prison time. This shows that our court system places more value on money than on human life.

The man and his family should be forced to pay back every penny that was stolen. No one from his family should benefit while so many suffer. As far as term, the man should be executed in the most severe way possible.

ONE THING THAT STRIKES ME AS STRANGE ABOUT THIS WHOLE CASE: BOY THE FEDS SEEM LIKE THEY DON’T WANT ANY PART OF THIS TO REALLY SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY. NO TRIAL, HEY JUST PLEAD GUILTY AND DISAPPEAR. IT WOULD APPEAR THAT THERE ARE MANY OTHERS PARKED OFF IN THE TWILIGHT THAT DO NOT WANT ANY LIGHTS SHOWN ON THEM OR ANY AFFILIATION THEY HAD WITH BERNIE. JUST BURY HIM AND ALL WILL BE FORGOTTEN.

what about his assets , and the assets he is hidding with his family members ? will investors recover any of their money ?

It’s hard to not notice that most of his victims were pretty wealthy. I wonder would the sentence be the same had he ripped off more “Average Joes” though somehow I doubt it.

Still, it’s nice to know that people do actually get punished every once in a while for their bad behavior.

Let’s face it, now that Madoff got a virtual life sentence, it’s only a matter of time before he does himself in.

At this juncture, it’s just a question of how and when so I was thinking of offering Vegas odds on the method and timing of this highly anticipated event. (My money’s on hanging from a belt or bead sheets in the prison latrine, within the next year or so)

How about it? Any guesses?

He should get the chair.

Why does his wife get to keep 2.5 million, instead of being homeless eating out of garbage cans, like the victims…unfair!

Its plenty. To me, making sure all his assets are seized and divided up fairly among the victims is the more important issue.

I think the sentence was overly harsh. Ripoff artists are abundant and when caught, they don’t get life sentences. I guess, though, that ripping off the rich is taboo. Now, I think that some of these gold-digging mongrels who lost fortunes on their “investments” should be like all of us in the stock market…we gambled…we lost…learn from it and deal with it. They should have been more careful where they put their money.caveat emptor or some such garb!