Madoff gets 150 years
June 30th, 2009 at 7:27 am by David FarrarThe defence wanted 12 years, the federal probation services suggested 50 years, but Bernie Madoff got the maximum 150 years. He’ll be 221 when he’s released!
His fraud included fabricated gains of US$65 billion (close to the NZ GDP) and he literally destroyed thousands of lives.
Up until 1991 he operated legitimately, but from then on he never made any legitimate investments – he just ran all money through his business bank account and used new investors to pay out on existing ones. How he survived 17 years of audits I don’t know. Even some basis confirmation with claimed investments would have picked this up.
Madoff has refused to co-operate with authorities, and it may never be known how much, if anything, the rest of his family knew.
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June 30th, 2009 at 7:30 am
A measely 10 bucks a second.
Vote:June 30th, 2009 at 7:56 am
On that basis can we expect Bryers and Petricevic to go away for fifteen each?
Vote:June 30th, 2009 at 9:01 am
And if he’d stuffed a kid in a tumble dryer he’d be out soon here.
Vote:June 30th, 2009 at 9:09 am
So no interference from a 3rd Party there then.
Entirely for presentational purposes.
‘The One’ now controls the Legislature?
Vote:June 30th, 2009 at 9:34 am
@ Grant Michael McKenna – I know where you’re coming from
– Have blogged about Oriwa Kemp’s early release this morning, but as I have already link-whored in the General Debate …..
Vote:June 30th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Interesting enough his defence team argued for a lenient sentence because they claimed he had co-operated with the authorities.
I agree with you on how this scheme got passed the eyes of the auditors. I suspect he might not have employed one of the top firms for this but then again after Enron you can’t be so sure. If he did employ such a firm then they should be made liable for some of the losses.
Vote:June 30th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
He’ll be 221 when he’s released!
DPF – the eternal optimist
Vote:June 30th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Now why cant our legislators and regulators get real rather than the soft cock options in NZ
Our white collar crims get hom,e detention
Vote:June 30th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Well rehabilitation will be out then won’t it.
Vote:June 30th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
How did he get away with it for seventeen years? I think the answer is contained in something Buffett once said: only when the tide goes out do you learn who’s been swimming naked. When people were making money from Ponzi scheme (a term of art I suggest be renamed to a Ponzi-Madoff scheme), they weren’t asking the right questions.
Vote:June 30th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Yep. Amongst the “literally thousands of lives” he ruined, how many people willingly suspended disbelief and accepted that they were getting legitimate returns vastly in excess of market rates?
For those people, Bernie Madoff wasn’t a crook… he was merely an agent of karma, in much the same way that the British peer who recently emailed me offering to split his lottery winnings would have been if I’d let greed overtake common sense.
A sentence three times that sought by the prosecution? That suggests the aptly-named Glutaemus Maximus has hit it on the head – it was a show trial the likes of which we haven’t seen since the Coloseum.
Vote:June 30th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
DPF: How he survived 17 years of audits I don’t know. Even some basis confirmation with claimed investments would have picked this up.
He survived 17 years BECAUSE of those audits. He knew how they worked and his scheme wouldn’t have worked without audits. Else people might have become suspicious. But now, of course it’s save, the government had audited him!
Vote:June 30th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
@Rex Widerstrom
“For those people, Bernie Madoff wasn’t a crook… he was merely an agent of karma.”
Well, hindsight is a wonderful thing, but we can’t blame people like Elie Wiesel for being uncomplex investors.
Madoff, unlike a Nigerian email fraudster, pulled a supreme trick of confidence on people who saw in him a philanthropist and chairman of Nasdaq during a bouyant market. Many people caught up in his scam were not investing with him directly, but via feeder funds.
On that token, I suspend my disbelief every single time I recieve investment advice from anyone supposedly more learned than myself in such matters.
Vote:June 30th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
@DPF
“How he survived 17 years of audits I don’t know.”
There was a very good documentary on the BBC Monday night about how Madoff did it. His auditor was registered to a P.O. Box in some podunk town. He has since been charged with fraud.
It does seem dodgy if someone claims to make significant wealth from the Chicago stock exchange, yet without any representatives or recorded trades there. Many saw this going on and complained to the SEC, who chose not to investigate.
The SEC are looking toothless and incompetant now, for this reason.
Vote:June 30th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
(a) who else was involved? Specifically?
(b) what were their nationalities?
(c) where specifically has the money gone?
(d) are there any extradition treaties?
Apparently, there are other ongoing investigations. Let’s hope that they answer “a” through “d”
(e) what if the money’s gone to Israel and they refuse to extradite those involved/repatriate the money?
(f) what if the world’s best investigative resources fail to locate 150 billion USD????
Vote:June 30th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
@ reid
a) thru d) There is a New York Times thingy which shows the scope of the operation, and who US authorities want to talk to:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/06/29/business/20090629-madoff-table.html
e) Money left Israel, as some of Madoff’s victims were Israeli-based charities and universities. So the government there is assisting the Americans.
f) The world’s best investigative resources have failed to find Osama Bin Ladin, so lets not hope too much!
That $150Bn figure isn’t entirely real money anyway, but includes make-believe returns Madoff was getting from his make-believe investments.
I am not sure they have come to a complete figure yet, and I don’t envy the person who has to sift through all the paper.
Vote:June 30th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
ephemera:
Thanks for the thoughts. I did check the link but it didn’t really address my questions.
I just really really really hope the authorities are vigorously pursuing the answer to all those obvious questions esp (c) really really thoroughly. There was 160,000 million dollars involved. That’s a lot of money, to crooks. That’s a lot of money, to get rid of. Where did it go? It just disappeared?
That was my main point.
Vote:June 30th, 2009 at 11:28 pm
@reid
Because Madoff plead guilty, he wasn’t compelled to answer further questions which would have implicated other players. This is a shame, because one man could not run an operation that large without institutional help.
There is video footage of Madoff while he was under house arrest, filmed from an apartment building across the street. You can see him happily tap-tapping away at his Apple Powerbook. It’s bloody sickening.
Money really can just disappear now. If your company is registered in Belize and you aren’t paying tax anyway, the scope for investgation is limited. In this current economic climate, hopefully governments can legistlate for greater transparency (as the Swiss might do soon).
Vote:June 30th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
“This is a shame, because one man could not run an operation that large without institutional help.”
That’s my point, ephemera.
I mean:
“Money really can just disappear now. If your company is registered in Belize and you aren’t paying tax anyway, the scope for investgation is limited.’
D’yuh really think it’s untrackable. With all the resources available to the enforcement agencies? Really?
Vote:July 1st, 2009 at 12:04 am
@reid
Nothing is untraceable in theory, but once money goes offshore, everything becomes murky, hence my Belize analogy.
I am not sure which enforcement agencies you mean, but most do not have juristiction over international financial systems. I think intelligence-gathering agencies like Interpol are gaining more traction these days, as more big cases like this occur.
The world is financially ‘connected’ now, but not all governments are.
Vote:July 1st, 2009 at 12:10 am
As I said on another blog – 150 years hardly seems like a punishment, seeing as how he is aged 71. He has spent the best part of his life enjoying other people’s money, buying yachts, houses, cars, and whatever else he wanted. He is nearing the end of his life now anyway, so I don’t see how a jail term is much of a punishment. It’s not as though he is 30 years old. He’s 71 and has enjoyed everything he’s ever wanted in life.
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