Madoff Gets 150

[LTSmash]

Bernie Madoff is sentenced to 150 years in prison. I find it to be way too extreme for white collar crime even if he did exploit hundreds of billions.

Here is my reasoning:

The justice system in the US is incredibly flawed. Child molesters, pedophiles, and rapists get 6 months in some cases while a man who has swindled tons of naive investors gets 150 years. It clearly makes no sense. In comparison to a rapist getting 6 months, Madoff should get two weeks. I understand that he has ruined many people’s lives financially and I feel no sympathy for the man (he deserves punishment), but a con artist and a person who commits murder or sexual assault are polar opposites.

On another note, I do have some heartbreak for the victims as I can't imagine what kind of suffering many of them are going through. However, they do bare some responsibility. Investing with hedgies is almost the equivalent to playing Blackjack. Some of these people who invested with Madoff said 'hit me' on 2 tens (no split) with their life savings on the line. That's just complete stupidity and my remorse tends to dissipate on people who had just as much greed to gamble their life savings on funds that are notorious for busting really hard.

[teatako]

I´d rethink the sexual assault get 6 months jail time rather than the idea of really punishing white collar crime.

[my porsche]

What the hell is the point of sentencing someone to 150 years in prison, why not just give him life?

[Zytek_Fan]

What the hell is the point of sentencing someone to 150 years in prison, why not just give him life?

The sentence of 150 years may be reduced through good behavior and it leaves the possibility of parole.

[cmcpokey]

The sentence of 150 years may be reduced through good behavior and it leaves the possibility of parole.

except it is federal, so he has to serve somewhere around 80% of his term. also there is no early parole option in fed.

i'm all for it. take the guys who have helped flush our country down the toilette, im looking predominately at wall street here, and lock them up for the evil men they are. in a lot of ways they are worse than child molesters or murders. they affect a lot more people, and in many cases destroy the lives of thousands.

[Rockefella]

Bernie will get out when he's 221 and make 50 more billion. He's immortal.

[Canam fan]

A couple points here:
1) the sentencing of maydoof has nothing to do with the other crimes mentioned in the earlier post
2) true that some wallstreet people screwed us over but the people behind them are still in Washington. Do not forget that Freddie and Fannie were buying all the garbage loans people could sell in addition to making $4 million dollar sweetheart loans to their supporters even though their charter was for "starter" homes. When Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi get 150 years in jail then we will have justice.
3) I wish that each day maydoff was forced to hang the picture of another person he swindled in his cell. Maybe at some point it will dawn on him that he had become scum and he will do all he can to help recover the lost money.

[DesmoRob]

. in a lot of ways they are worse than child molesters or murders. they affect a lot more people, and in many cases destroy the lives of thousands.

I agree but I disagree. Yes they affect more people. However, a financial crisis is something that can be recovered from, as many people have proven over the years. When you're down, there's no way but up. Sure, many people will give up at this point and deem their lives officially over because they failed once. Others will see it as a set back to their financial independence and keep at it one day at a time to make things better.

Now, when a child is raped, the damage is done and the scars are there forever. Hardly comparable in that regards to the damage of an investment crime. The physical wounds can always heal, but the mental trauma of rape far outweighs losing the money you've worked for. You can always get your cash back over time. A victimized child will grow up in fear and/or in very serious cases even become part of the problem later in life because of their mind altering experience.

I don't think the two scenarios compare. Madoff should be made to spend 10 or 15 years in a cell with Bubba, and forced to repay what he can to the people he schemed.

A child molester/rapist actually proven guilty should just be shot, plain and simple. Zero tolerance there. Why throw them in a cell where the grieving parents' tax dollars contribute to their support.

[NSXType-R]

Bernie Madoff is sentenced to 150 years in prison. I find it to be way too extreme for white collar crime even if he did exploit hundreds of billions.

Here is my reasoning:

The justice system in the US is incredibly flawed. Child molesters, pedophiles, and rapists get 6 months in some cases while a man who has swindled tons of naive investors gets 150 years. It clearly makes no sense. In comparison to a rapist getting 6 months, Madoff should get two weeks. I understand that he has ruined many people’s lives financially and I feel no sympathy for the man (he deserves punishment), but a con artist and a person who commits murder or sexual assault are polar opposites.

On another note, I do have some heartbreak for the victims as I can't imagine what kind of suffering many of them are going through. However, they do bare some responsibility. Investing with hedgies is almost the equivalent to playing Blackjack. Some of these people who invested with Madoff said 'hit me' on 2 tens (no split) with their life savings on the line. That's just complete stupidity and my remorse tends to dissipate on people who had just as much greed to gamble their life savings on funds that are notorious for busting really hard.

Alright, 150 years does sound useless, but when you think that people invested their life savings into this guy, this guy deserves what he got. In some cases, some people lost everything. I agree, investing can be dangerous. But this wasn't investing, it's a Ponzi Scheme. That's straight out wrong. He was actually very well known in the investing community, what really sucked is that no one bothered to look up his credentials for some odd reason. He just happened to slip through the cracks.

And a Ponzi Scheme is pretty much this- you take in money from people as an investment. You give back some money, thinking you've made some money, and you keep the rest. Rinse and repeat for future "investors". It's supposed to be a short term thing- do it enough and enough people catch on, because later investors don't get as much money as the earlier ones usually.

[LTSmash]

Rob nailed it in his second paragraph.

EDIT:

Alright, 150 years does sound useless, but when you think that people invested their life savings into this guy, this guy deserves what he got. In some cases, some people lost everything. I agree, investing can be dangerous. But this wasn't investing, it's a Ponzi Scheme. That's straight out wrong. He was actually very well known in the investing community, what really sucked is that no one bothered to look up his credentials for some odd reason. He just happened to slip through the cracks.

Anyone who invests their life savings into a hedge is an idiot at that but to invest into a hedge that has yet to yield deserves a Darwin Award. I don't care if it's a Ponzi or not that is just plain idiotic. It’s not different than Vegas. When you look back at the whole situation you could see that there was something suspicious with Madoff.

Plus, it looks to me that many Madoff investors were a bunch of wealthy people who knew jack about hedgies and just wanted to brag to their buddies on the golf course about their portfolio. In truth they were the greedy ones too. A simple PIMCO fund would have done most of them better off instead of gambling for 20%. The mechanics of risk management is so complex that many of the pros don't even succeed their first time. It's clearly not a place for amateurs to put their cash for bragging purposes.

(I don't want to give any impression that I'm defending Madoff. I clearly do not defend his action at a single iota. I just want to bring up an important point of the risk the investors took too.)

[Rockefella]

In the end this all comes down to ethics and how one perceives the crime in the grand scheme of society. Some people think Madoff deserves a death penalty while others deem a slap on the wrist as the punishment with reimbursement. I'm in the middle somewhere.

[ScionDriver]

I say throw them all in jail. Breaking the law is breaking the law. You knowingly do it, serve some time. Give rapists and con artists 150 years, I don't care they are both worthless humans and scum or the earth types.
If a jail is overcrowded part of me says "So what?" jail is supposed to be uncomfortable. Why should we treat our criminals any better than the ones we hold off shore at places like Gitmo. The other part says they still deserve certain treatment and if they get out the prison system can make them more jaded.
Big crimes should equal big time in all cases.

[blackcat77]

Set up a cage right in the middle of Wall Street. Put a refrigerator box in it. That's where Madoff should spend his sentence. Let him be an example to every Wall Street worker of what will happen if they abuse the public trust.

[IBrake4Rainbows]

I don't think it's too extreme.

Nothing frightens these people more than the thought of having to spend the rest of their lives in Jail for their supposedly "less serious" crimes.

A Criminal is a Criminal is a Criminal - especially when there is such systematic ignorance of the law.

[Matra et Alpine]

I agree Madoff shodul only have been given TWO WEEKS for breaking the law.

Multiply it by the number of people involved whom he defrauded and I think you may get damn close to 150 years. AND rightly so

Also when I see unusal sentences like that I always reckon the judge is just "using the system". So he wants to give the guy 50 years. He knows if he says life it can get reduced. He also knows that by playing all the tricks it can get reduced to one third of his sentence ... so give him 150 and let the system work it down to 50