Bernie Madoff gets 150 years in prison

[jaybee]

Ex-con: Bernie won’t be too popular behind bars

[lendarios]

death sentence would have cost more since he has chances for more appeals.
since he admitted guilty to the crime there is no appeals, or at least not that many.
I think he would die of non natural causes soon, for those who lost billions what is 50k to have him lynched

[Lost Ranger]

Originally Posted by Kragg Goremaw

I never understood the whole concept of life without parole or multiple life sentences, if you are going to sentence someone to die in prison why not just give them the death penalty and get it over with already?

Either way he is going to die in jail the difference is when and how much it costs the public.

Life in prison is by far worse then the death penalty. I know that the death penalty is our "highest form of punishment" but a lethal injection is a fairly easy way to go compared to sitting in a small cage for 20+ years. If I had the choice between the two I would take death without even giving it much thought. Life in a box is no life at all.

Death is the chicken shit way out for these guys. They have caused a lot of misery and ruined a lot of lives. They don't deserve a quick, quiet end. Let them suffer, and keep people like this in gen pop. Nothing like getting ass raped repeatedly to make you wish you had been a contributing member of society instead of a prick. Only real downside is the cost which does indeed suck.

[The Ancient]

FYI The Death Penalty system is still currently more expensive than jailing someone for life.

[Tangurena]

Originally Posted by Kragg Goremaw

I never understood the whole concept of life without parole or multiple life sentences, if you are going to sentence someone to die in prison why not just give them the death penalty and get it over with already?

If we make a mistake with a life sentence, then we can always let the guy out. If we make a mistake after killing the dude, it is a little hard to bring them back to life.

Originally Posted by Soriak

He's not a threat to anyone as nobody is going to trust him with their money again.

People who have fallen for confidence tricks usually fall for the exact same one again and again. Bernie would only need to play the "I know where your money went, and with a little investment, I can get it back for you" game and enough of a percentage of his burnt investors would throw more money back at the guy for him to live in penthouses and caviar for the rest of his unnatural life.

People who fall for advance fee frauds (the main 419 scams going around) are treasured by the scamsters because once one crook has gotten all they can out of the pigeon, another one can come along pretending to be the FBI or something and scam them out of more money by pretending to help them get the 419er.

This guy screwed investors for 40 years, and he'd have kept going if he could have.

[tjac]

Originally Posted by Soriak

Ridiculous sentence - I'd give him a fine and, at most, 2 years of house arrest. Why should taxpayers pay to lock him up? He's not a threat to anyone as nobody is going to trust him with their money again.

Right. Fine an utterly insolvent man who inflicted fraud damages greater than the insurance payout on the World Trade Center.

Anyway, to help you calculate your proposal, a file-sharing mom just got fined $2M for a handful of songs without establishing distribution or profit. Just what number would you like to levy against Madoff?

[Soriak]

Originally Posted by tjac

Right. Fine an utterly insolvent man who inflicted fraud damages greater than the insurance payout on the World Trade Center.

Can't repay everything he lost, but that money is gone anyway. What benefit does society get from locking him up? Is it going to be a deterrent for other people planning to set up a multi-billion dollar ponzi scheme?

Anyway, to help you calculate your proposal, a file-sharing mom just got fined $2M for a handful of songs without establishing distribution or profit. Just what number would you like to levy against Madoff?

Fines for sharing files are out of whack, as are jail sentences - imo they are in general far too long. Prohibit him from running another investment fund and call it a day.

[Strifen]

The worst criminals wear a suit and a tie.

[tjac]

Originally Posted by Soriak

Can't repay everything he lost, but that money is gone anyway. What benefit does society get from locking him up? Is it going to be a deterrent for other people planning to set up a multi-billion dollar ponzi scheme?

In terms of punishment, nothing can be done to Madoff that would match the damage he's caused. Death simply wouldn't be enough, nor would a 150 year sentence even if he had 150 years to live.

Similarly, there is no deterrent achieved. A person who wants to commit such a crime doesn't rationally consider consequences.

What's left is just the nominal justice we always get: the bastard is not free, and he never will be until he dies. That's got to be good enough.

[Soriak]

You do know Madoff didn't cause the financial crisis, right? Most of the money he "lost" never actually existed - he simply claimed there were profits that weren't there. I think the Madoff-hate is a little excessive. No doubt the guy defrauded people and foundations, but they all MUST have known what they were getting was too good to be real. The people who invested with him were primarily professionals who should have immediately seen that his consistent return was unlike anything one would expect. Either he was the world's biggest genius, which would have required some proof beyond his word, or it was a scam. They were simply blinded by greed and got defrauded because of it. Tragic, but imo not that big a deal. People get scammed by deals that are too good to be true all the time. This scam just hit people who REALLY should have known better... in fact, people who were well compensated to know better.

What I don't get is that some of these supposed professionals, who - just to reiterate - were paid for their expertise, ended up investing everything with Madoff. Why would I pay someone to invest everything with one guy? That kinda defeats the point of the middleman, whose job it is exactly to prevent that kind of risk exposure.

[Luthair]

The initial investments from many people are lost.

An interesting point I heard this morning prior to the sentencing was that if you don't deserve the maximum sentence for a $65B fraud who does?

[Pren]

Chetry: How busy are you as a consultant prepping people to go?

Levine: My phone rings off the hook. Everybody has a problem, everyone has a question. Some people I can help, some people I can’t. Now, I had Madoff’s reps get a hold of me before he went into custody and I turned them down. I wouldn’t help the guy out because I view him as an economic terrorist. If you rip off a bank and insurance company, an institution, that’s an acceptable crime. Bernie hurt people. He hurt people individually and I refuse to help people like that. Let him rot in hell.

haha, goddamn.

[Haus]

It was 10 years to kill him, and 140 years to placate the calls for blood from the media and public..

[Quineloe]

woah Madoff is a JEW? Who would have thought!

he simply claimed there were profits that weren't there. I think the Madoff-hate is a little excessive

So all these individual fates the news has reported about never had any money to begin with?

[Grooverider]

This guy ruined hundreds of peoples lives by stealing their money. Lots of them weren't rich and lost everything thanks to this piece of shit.

All of you asking for leniency are fucking crazy. He stole from good people. He ruined good peoples' lives. How can you defend him and say 'It was obvious he was doing something wrong!!'. Please cut the fucking shit.