Madoff Sentencing Only the Beginning
By Larry Doyle on June 30, 2009 at 10:00 AM in Bernie Madoff, Economy, Sense on Cents (Larry Doyle blog)
Bernie Madoff
Having received the maximum 150 years in prison, Bernie Madoff now knows how he will ‘exist’ for the balance of his ‘life.’ Today does not represent the end of the pursuit of justice in this massive fraud, but truly the beginning.
Victims of crime typically look for justice in two forms: restitution and justice “for all” parties involved.
The victims of the Madoff Ponzi scheme will be lucky to receive a small percentage of the monies invested in this fraud. The money is obviously extremely important to all the victims, but there is much more to justice than that.
For justice to truly be served, all of those who aided and abetted this fraud must also be brought to justice and pay the maximum price. To think that Bernie Madoff managed this scheme by himself is beyond naive. The Wall Street Journal highlights as much in writing, For Victims, Downsized Lives and Many Shattered Dreams:
“I hope he has to go to jail forever,” said Sheila Ennis, 63, of Manhattan Beach, Calif. “I hope they get all his assets, and I do feel others were involved. But now it’s a question of how we fix things for ourselves.”
Not unlike losing a loved one, victims of crime also need closure. That closure is only possible when every individual involved in the crime pays!! A financial settlement with Ruth Madoff should not preclude a potential indictment of her or her sons. Others directly and indirectly involved in this fraud also need to be fully investigated. To do otherwise would be a miscarriage of justice. If those investigations were to cross into government offices, then so be it, because justice neglected is justice denied!
Make no mistake, the fact that Madoff received the maximum allowable sentence is also an indictment of the SEC. Why? The fact that the Madoff Ponzi scheme grew as large as it did was simply a function of the culpability of the SEC. All those at the SEC who never pursued the Madoff fraud over the years should feel real personal and professional shame today.
As we move forward, I can only hope that our country and all who love it view the Madoff sentencing not only as the beginning of justice for the Madoff victims, but also the beginning of real transparency for victims of all financial frauds.
As I write this, though, I am reminded of the thousands of investors and tens of billions of dollars still frozen in Auction-Rate Securities. Those investors have neither restitution, nor justice, nor real media or judicial investigations truly working for them.
As a nation, we have a long way to go to regain our moral stature and promote our markets as being free and open for all.
LD
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His wife and children need to give 95% of their fortunes to the victims. Ruth Madoff is crying crying crying with a loaf of bread under her arm. Some of the victims are not so lucky.
His wife and children need to have EVERYTHING taken from them and given to the victims. Many of his victims, at very advanced ages, are working in fast food places, many have to borrow money for basic necessities from relations, so why shouldn’t the precious Madoffs be required to do manual labor for the rest of their miserable lives? Personally, I’d like to see them earning 12 to 40 cents an hour in some hard core prison for 50 or more years. And don’t tell me that they weren’t in on it! I’m not that gullible.
From the Washington Post online:
The sentence of Bernie Madoff is really outrageous regardless of how many people fell for his scam. Judge Chin is obviously a “reactionary” seeking to gain favor with the mob. Madoff didn’t kill anyone yet his sentence is substantially longer than those convicted of rape, murder and other violent crimes.
(snip)
Many of those who lost money were simply “smart” people who thought that they had “insider” advantages. They were careless with their money and greedy. “A fool and his money are soon parted”.
Nevertheless, the sentence given to Madoff is excessive, reactionary and stupid. He should have been given a sentence without regards to the wishes of the mob. Perhaps if he had been given a fair sentence he could have helped the SEC learn how to prevent similar scams in the future.
(snip)
Posted by: jimeglrd8 | June 29, 2009 12:16 PM
PLEASE NOTE:
The average sentence for murder in this country is 22 years.
The average sentence for rape in this country is 14 years.
At least one person, Madoff’s boss, killed himself over this tragedy.
Not all of the investors were “greedy”. There were pension funds for teachers, police officers, and others involved.
Sure, some rich folks got burned and it made the news. But that does not apply to all of the investors. For some involved this was their old age pension. They can’t start over. Just like many of those caught in the Enron Ponzi scheme.
This sentencing has the same effect as a life without parole sentence.
That said, I agree with LD. Madoff couldn’t have pulled this off by himself. The rest of the criminals need to face justice as well.
I think the sentence was mostly a warning to others. This type of fraud, given its scope, has the power to damage the country.
It must be treated severely. I was in favor of the maximum when it became clear that he wouldn’t cooperate with the government. I never saw myself as part of a “mob”.
I think the SEC should be feeling a lot more than just “real personal and professional shame”. They failed to do the job they are supposed to do. Has anyone there lost their job because of this? Will anyone lose their job? Why not?
To investors, individuals and others. This is a reminder that all that glitters is not gold. If something looks too good to be true, it usually is.
Yes, what happened to the good old days when people in the government actually got FIRED?
Excellent post! It makes me angry all over again. I worry that with so much going on our country will just jump from crisis to crisis and not taking the time to do the proper mop-up work.
I agree 100% with your sentiments, LD.
I’m sure, instead of ” 150 years” in jail, they would like better, their money to be returned. They are still, without their life savings(some of them).
Gee, our politicians are cheating us out of billions of tax dollars, putting our dollar in jeopardy of being replaced by another form of money, putting our country in the jeopardy of being owning by the chinese, and the policians are letting this administration to what ever it wants to us the taxpayer. Personally I don’t see much difference in what Madoff did and what BO is doing to us the taxpayer. What can we do to stop the insanity?
same stuff.
Meanwhile, the Conyers’ Saga continues.
Barack Obama - Tax Cutter.
As we near the end of June, which is supposed to be one of the four biggest months for federal tax collections (January, April, and September are the others), it is clear that the serious receipts shortfalls are not only continuing, but have caused the March 20 projections of the administration and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) outdated.
Media coverage of the ongoing receipts dive has been minimal at best.
Our country’s in the best of hands.
My thoughts about this. First, lets identify the guilty parties; Madoff, those the directly assisted him and those individuals AND institutions who enabled him, including any licensed professional that had oversight of his activities like CPAs, bankers, lawyers, financial consultants and those in the SEC who failed at their legal oversight.
Now lets identify who is criminally responsible, see above, and by criminal I mean jail time from extreme to symbolic along with stripping of license and banning from practicing.
Now lets identify who is financially responsible. In addition to those above who at a minimum should pay fines, all those who benefited from receiving stolen funds should be required to provide financial records and disgorge as much s feasible. Obviously a charity that spent the money can’t be asked to return money, but individuals or organizations (investment pools, pension plans etc.) should return profits that are in excess of the average expected within the time frame of their investment lets say comparable to investing in an index fund tracking the NADSAQ less 5% since they had use of the money. It is not fair to punish those who may have made profit by investing innocently with Madoff either.
My understanding is that if you look simply at money invested, as opposed to paper profits lost, the figure is around %15B. Hopefully they can recoup as much of that as possible.
“virtually guaranteed that, at age 71, the financier-turned-felon would die in jail.”
However, now we the taxpayer are the newest victims as Bernie will be medically well taken care off. Long Term Care courtesy of the Federal Tax dollars. A young inmate as a nursing assistant to wheel him around as needed. Wheel chair paid for with tax dollars. Even his burial will be financed by tax dollars.
Well he had fun fun fun fun — until uncle same took all ‘his’ money away — and now he looks really old and beaten. And nope I have no sympathy for him — his enablers should also lose everything & go to jail.
Any other sneaky ba$tards who just haven’t been caught yet — probably lots of them — that’s the problem — there are other greedy jerks getting away with their thieving ways.
LD, months ago you interviewed an investigator who discussed Madoff’s assets that were most likely hidden elsewhere. Is there any update on whether all assets and monies hidden have been determined yet and whether those who assisted in the hiding of the money and assets are going to be considered accomplices to fraud? I understand some of the victims have already filed suit against the SEC, negligence?