Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Madoff sentenced
Is it just me, or did this all move pretty quickly? The largest fraud in history, and he goes from arrest to conviction and imprisonment in 6 months? Maybe it's too early in the morning, but I seem to recall these types of massive fraud cases take longer to unwind. I wonder if there are people who wanted to speed this up so Bernie would keep his trap shut.
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7 comments:
The jig was up, he ran out of new cash. The only way to stay alive was to go to jail and have the feds protect him and allow him to try to save the family.
Still did well. Sure 150 years sounds bad, but he had younger years of wealth and power and now he has his old age with government care...normal life tables only give him a few years in the pen.
I want to see what they do to the rest of his gang and what they stole.
A guilty plea can speed things up a lot.
I guess if he couldn't be out on bond, roaming the streets, what was the point of paying lawyers to tie things up for years with not-guilty pleas and appeals?
Honestly, I think the guilty plea was done to avoid the whole trial, discovery, cross examination process. He did it to help somebody. He knew he was toast no matter what so he could at least go down helping someone.
After originally pleading guilty, Madoff should have been summarily executed in front of the NYSE building as a public spectacle.
That *still* wouldn't have been an appropriate punishment for the hundreds (thousands?) of lives he's ruined in perpetuity. But it would have been more satisfying...
Orange, he deserves life in prison, but I don't shed any tears for the vast majority of his "victims". Anyone who dials in a recurring 10% return on their portfolio, for years on end, knows damn well there was shady business going on. I feel sympathy for the widows who got in at the end, but that's it.
I agree Lou. In the 15 years I was a broker, I wanted to tattoo on clients foreheads "I can not beat the market". Lord knows I tried to convince people that you can't beat the market, period the end. But of course, greed is probably the biggest lust of them all. That is what made me the sickest of all about the job. Greed. I seriously wish most people cared about their kids 1/2 as much as they do their money.
"Anyone who dials in a recurring 10% return on their portfolio, for years on end, knows damn well there was shady business going on."
I think many thought this in the back of their minds, but were so blinded by greed that they simply convinced themselves that Bernie was a genius. Well, they were right...he was a genius because he conned them all.
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