Sensible Erection | Madoff Sentenced to 150 Years

Monday, 29 June 2009

quote [ Historic swindler Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison Monday for a fraud so extensive that the judge said he needed to send a symbolic message to potential imitators and to victims who demanded harsh punishment. ]

A friend of mine who attended the trial posted this on facebook: "At the Madoff sentencing: Another victim alluded to Dante's "Inferno" and its three-headed devil, saying: "I hope Satan can grow a fourth mouth for Madoff.""

[politics] [by Skits@5:05pmGMT] [+10 Good]

Comments

Nostrildamus said @ 5:25pm GMT on 29th Jun
that fucker.

KingPellinore said @ 5:32pm GMT on 29th Jun
150 years in "White Collar Resort Prison", or 150 years in "Federal Pound-Me-In-The-Ass Prison"?

maryyugo said @ 5:33pm GMT on 29th Jun
probably neither-- most likely is "medium" security.

granitewitch said @ 8:26pm GMT on 29th Jun
They say he'll be in medium security, most likely Ray Brook. Having lived up there, I can guarantee he won't be going anywhere- even if he could get out, it's not hospitable terrain for the unprepared. In the winter it's bitterly cold, and in the summer the bugs would suck him dry. He'll be at least five miles from anything, and what is there ain't much.

That said, it is a beautiful area...

traitor said @ 2:35am GMT on 30th Jun
Oh man. I did one winter in Saranac Lake digging sewers and I still have nightmares. Ray Brook is the town you gingerly drive drunk through on your way back from Lake Placid.

maryyugo said @ 5:33pm GMT on 29th Jun [Score:1 Insightful]
yeah, ok. i think they should've made more effort to find out what really happened and what went wrong and who else was involved and where all that money went. this guy's life is essentially over anyway. putting him in prison for "150 years" is a meaningless gesture. it will be a low or medium security jail anyway. buba probably won't get at him and won't care anyway. his ass is too old.

instead of silly appeals to a non-existing "satan", a lot more investigation and trading the possibility of parole, maybe in 10 years, for a complete exposition of how, why and what would have been a much better deal for the society. i don't blame the victims but emotional twitism isn't going to prevent the next madogff or all the thousands of mini-madoffs for whom it is still business as usual.

Transfer said @ 5:36pm GMT on 29th Jun
He probably won't live longer than 5 years.

maryyugo said @ 5:41pm GMT on 29th Jun
yeah.

KropperPrime said @ 5:56pm GMT on 29th Jun
Financing fail.

You just strap him to a wall or something and let people have potshots at him for 5 bucks a shot.

You'll win back the billions in no time.

King of the Hill said @ 6:23pm GMT on 29th Jun
Problem is.... Billions.

The "fund" he had simply wasn't real nor were the returns.

One investor whined that he's only be getting back the $150k he invested and not the $600k that it grew to....Uhm... Hello??? IT DIDN'T FUCKING GROW TO ANYTHING - it was a fraud. He should be happy to be getting back what he put in.

People are silly.

maryyugo said @ 6:47pm GMT on 29th Jun
he's getting back what he put in? i think if true, that's a rarity. most people will get back a tiny fraction if anything.

King of the Hill said @ 7:04pm GMT on 29th Jun
There is a gov't sponsored corp that will pay up to a certain amount... If he had invested a million, he's be up shit creek for the entire million but still get back from 250 to 500k via this gov't run org.... anything else he would have to fight for out of the remains of Madoff's estate.

Anyone that still thinks they should get back what they were told the investment grew to... shouldn't be investing anyway.

f00m@nB@r said @ 7:06pm GMT on 29th Jun
don't forget to give him a printing press to print some money. because, as KotH pointed out, there are no billions. there was no growth.

not only that, madoff took money out, so there is a net loss.

i suggest you take some remedial arithmetic classes.

Krutz said @ 6:40pm GMT on 29th Jun [Score:3 Underrated]
I, for one, wouldn't mind white-collar crime getting more of the draconian measures that drug crimes have received in the past 20 years.

The idea that stealing via spreadsheet is "victimless" or limited in scope is laughable.

Barnabas_Truman said @ 11:56pm GMT on 29th Jun
Ever read Going Postal by Pratchett? Has a lot to say about faceless financial crimes. At one point the con man is shocked and horrified when his parole officer adds up all of the minor crimes he's committed and tells him how many "effective" deaths he's responsible for, on average.

It is rarely the bankers who starve when a bank fails.

Krutz said @ 2:29am GMT on 30th Jun
That book and "Making Money" should be required reading for MBA degrees (assuming we don't ban the things as being to finance as homeopathic medicine is to biological science).

Plus, "Going Postal" features one of my favorite inventions from B.S. ("Bloody Stupid") Johnson, the Mail Sorter.

Barnabas_Truman said @ 3:38am GMT on 30th Jun
B.S. Johnson was a genius. "Is that a Johnson? I haven't gotten my hands on a Johnson in years!"

maryyugo said @ 6:46pm GMT on 29th Jun

Tough questions after Madoff

structured_spirits said @ 2:05am GMT on 30th Jun [Score:1 Interesting]
I think the lesson that America has learned here is that you can't steal from the rich and get away with it. Stealing from teh poor is still totally cool though.

JOECAM said @ 2:21am GMT on 30th Jun [Score:1 Funny]