Bernie Madoff Sentenced to 150 Years in Prison

[Frodo]

Why do we sentence people to more than fifty or so years in prison even though everyone knows there is no way they can serve out the full sentence?  Just how many skeletons or mummified remains do we currently still have in their cells serving out their 700 or 800 year prison sentences? 
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Madoff Sentenced to 150 Years in Prison for Ponzi Scheme

By JACK HEALY
Published: June 29, 2009

A federal judge sentenced Bernard L. Madoff to 150 years in prison on Monday for operating a huge Ponzi scheme that devastated thousands of people, calling his crimes “extraordinarily evil.”

In pronouncing the sentence — the maximum he could have handed down — Judge Denny Chin turned aside Mr. Madoff’s own assertions of remorse and rejected the suggestion from Mr. Madoff’s lawyers that there was a sense of “mob vengeance” surrounding calls for a long prison term.

“Objectively speaking, the fraud here was staggering,” the judge said. “It spanned more than 20 years.”

After victims told a packed courtroom that he should be shown no mercy in the case, which could bring a prison sentence of up to 150 years, Mr. Madoff stood up from the defense table to acknowledge the damage he had inflicted and expressed regret.

“I’m responsible for a great deal of suffering and pain, I understand that,” Mr. Madoff told the court. “I live in a tormented state now, knowing all of the pain and suffering that I’ve created. I’ve left a legacy of shame, as some of my victims have pointed out, to my family and my grandchildren.”

Addressing his victims seated in the courtroom, he said: “I will turn and face you. I’m sorry. I know that doesn’t help you.”

Prosecutors said that Mr. Madoff deserved the maximum sentence — representing a life sentence and more for the disgraced 71-year-old financier — for perpetrating one of the biggest investment frauds in Wall Street history. Mr. Madoff’s own lawyers said he should receive only 12 years, a sentence that would offer him the chance to walk out of prison at age 83.

[Franzl]

Regardless of whether 150 years are really realistic.....it has the same effect: this man won't be free in his life again.

That's justice.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Regardless of whether 150 years are really realistic.....it has the same effect: this man won't be free in his life again.

That's justice.

That's right, death by old age in jail is the reality, and using the 150 years just catches everyone's attention.

[© tweed]

Regardless of whether 150 years are really realistic.....it has the same effect: this man won't be free in his life again.

That's justice.

in a perverted Western sense, sure it is, though it doesn't and won't make anybody's life any better.

[A18]

It may, if it serves as a deterrent. Not that the marginal benefit of that 150th year was very high.

[they don't love you like i love you]

Why do we sentence people to more than fifty or so years in prison even though everyone knows there is no way they can serve out the full sentence?

Because that's the amount of years that his crimes add up to? Madoff would be unlikely to live through even a 20-year sentence, so should it have been capped at some point?

Regardless of whether 150 years are really realistic.....it has the same effect: this man won't be free in his life again.

That's justice.

in a perverted Western sense, sure it is, though it doesn't and won't make anybody's life any better.

Him also being forced to forfeit $170 billion will.

[Frodo]

Why do we sentence people to more than fifty or so years in prison even though everyone knows there is no way they can serve out the full sentence?

Because that's the amount of years that his crimes add up to? Madoff would be unlikely to live through even a 20-year sentence, so should it have been capped at some point?

Is explicitly sentencing someone to life imprisonment (as opposed to a set number of years that add up to the same thing) so hard? 

This is a minor quibble of mine, but it just irritates me to have judges and/or juries sentence someone to centuries in prison when they could have just said that they would be in prison for the rest of their lives.  It makes the punishment sound more ridiculous than it should. 

[Brittain33]

Him also being forced to forfeit $170 billion will.

For what it's worth, they will never recover anything close to that sum from him and from "Josie College."

[they don't love you like i love you]

Why do we sentence people to more than fifty or so years in prison even though everyone knows there is no way they can serve out the full sentence?

Because that's the amount of years that his crimes add up to? Madoff would be unlikely to live through even a 20-year sentence, so should it have been capped at some point?

Is explicitly sentencing someone to life imprisonment (as opposed to a set number of years that add up to the same thing) so hard? 

This is a minor quibble of mine, but it just irritates me to have judges and/or juries sentence someone to centuries in prison when they could have just said that they would be in prison for the rest of their lives.  It makes the punishment sound more ridiculous than it should. 

Yes because it's legally impossible. Madoff did not committ any one crime that is eligible for a life sentence. The sum of the sentences for all the crimes he did commit certainly add up to higher than a life sentence, but that's beside the point.

BTW in some countries (I know Spain is one) sentencing people to jail for over a century is actually standard practice because no life sentence exists, basically any murder sentence that would carry life in the US would instead get >100 years in Spain.

[Iosif]

A bit harsh. All he did was rob money off the rich. They deserved it anyway.

[Franzl]

A bit harsh. All he did was rob money off the rich. They deserved it anyway.

wonderful logic....

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

If you ever read Grimjack, then you'd know that in the pan-dimensional city of Cynosure, if you still have time to serve, when you get reincarnated, they haul you in to serve the remainder of your sentence.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

He got off easy.

[© tweed]

It may, if it serves as a deterrent. Not that the marginal benefit of that 150th year was very high.

you're a good man

[Magic 8-Ball]

Good.  As bad as this sounds, I think swindling people out of all of their money is worse than murder.

That said, only an idiot would invest his entire life savings with one firm.

[Earth]

A bit harsh. All he did was rob money off the rich. They deserved it anyway.

Yeah, except it wasn't just the rich he ripped off. Retirees, and the middle class also.

[Brittain33]

A bit harsh. All he did was rob money off the rich. They deserved it anyway.

Yeah, except it wasn't just the rich he ripped off. Retirees, and the middle class also.

Not to mention a large number of charities and charitable foundations. Elie Wiesel's foundation lost millions.

I see the names "Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro" on so many institutions in Boston, not least of them the Museum of Fine Arts. Gone.

[Franzl]

Regardless of whether 150 years are really realistic.....it has the same effect: this man won't be free in his life again.

That's justice.

in a perverted Western sense, sure it is, though it doesn't and won't make anybody's life any better.

true enough, but even if you believe that life in prison (150 years) is too harsh....don't you think he deserves some type of punishment?

[Holmes]

Why do people do these things when they know this is how they'll end up?

[Stranger in a strange land]

Why do people do these things when they know this is how they'll end up?

He probably thought he would get away with it.

[© tweed]

Regardless of whether 150 years are really realistic.....it has the same effect: this man won't be free in his life again.

That's justice.

in a perverted Western sense, sure it is, though it doesn't and won't make anybody's life any better.

true enough, but even if you believe that life in prison (150 years) is too harsh....don't you think he deserves some type of punishment?

the idea of putting him in a halfway house and forcing him to work for the SEC appeals to me, and it illustrates another way in which we could handle the criminal justice process, especially for non-violent and extremely intelligent criminals such as Madoff.

[Rob]

the idea of putting him in a halfway house and forcing him to work for the SEC appeals to me, and it illustrates another way in which we could handle the criminal justice process, especially for non-violent and extremely intelligent criminals such as Madoff.

Don't you think the prospect of that "punishment" would only encourage more sleazy rich guys to try ripping people off? "Even if I get caught, hey, I can just go to work for the government!"

[© tweed]

the idea of putting him in a halfway house and forcing him to work for the SEC appeals to me, and it illustrates another way in which we could handle the criminal justice process, especially for non-violent and extremely intelligent criminals such as Madoff.

Don't you think the prospect of that "punishment" would only encourage more sleazy rich guys to try ripping people off? "Even if I get caught, hey, I can just go to work for the government!"

no.  it requires a unique skill set (and some luck) in order to pull off what Madoff did.  when orchestrating and carrying out an elaborate scheme for decades, I doubt 'deterrents' play a major role in the mastermind's thought process.


and, also, most/all assets still would be seized, so 'sleazy rich guys' would at least have to risk losing the 'rich' from their title.

[Governor PiT]

A bit harsh. All he did was rob money off the rich. They deserved it anyway.

X2. better is gets stollen by Bernie than donated to AIPAC or the ADL.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

A bit harsh. All he did was rob money off the rich. They deserved it anyway.

X2. better is gets stollen by Bernie than donated to AIPAC or the ADL.

Are you serious?  He stole from charitable foundations, like Elie Wiesel's.