JUSTICE: Bye, Bye Bernie … Ponzi Scheme Swindler Bernard Madoff Get Maximum 150 Years in Prison

Although no amount of prison time makes up for the billions that Madoff defrauded from the rich and poor alike, 150 years makes for some nice retribution.

Justice has been served in the Madoff Ponzi fraud. Bernard Madoff will not be seeing the light of day any time soon. Madoff was sentenced to 150 years for orchestrating the largest financial swindle in history. There is a special spot reserved in hell for Madoff for the thousands of unsuspecting people that he defrauded and stole their life savings. Previously a judge had ordered that Madoff forfeit $170 billion.

Madoff, from the penthouse to the big house

Bernard Madoff, the self-confessed author of the biggest financial swindle in history, was sentenced to the maximum 150 years behind bars for what his judge called an “extraordinarily evil” fraud that shook the nation’s faith in its financial and legal systems and took “a staggering toll” on rich and poor alike.

As one of the Madoff victims told the court, “Commit Madoff to prison for the rest of his life. “May Satan grow a fourth mouth where Madoff can spend the rest of eternity.”

The landmark sentence, one of the stiffest ever given for a white-collar crime, came just six months after Mr. Madoff, a pioneer on Wall Street, allegedly told his sons that his entire business was a massive Ponzi scheme. The penalty sparked a burst of applause in a courtroom packed with victims of the fraud.

Yet another example of why we hate defense attorneys. Check out this circular logic for defending his client. Some how because the defrauded money went to other investors, that’s supposed to lessen what Madoff did.

Mr. Madoff’s attorney, Ira Sorkin, said that Mr. Madoff was a “deeply flawed individual” but maintained that most of the fraud money went to other investors. He added that the $13 billion figure cited by the government as the net losses suffered by account holders since 1995 was overstated, since at least $1 billion in recovered assets will be returned to investors, and perhaps a lot more. The judge said that was irrelevant to the case. Mr. Sorkin said Mr. Madoff deserved only 12 years in prison, since he was 71 and had helped the government in its investigation — a statement Judge Chin questioned.

Ruth and Bernie Madoff … say good bye to the penthouse and Bernie, say hello to the big house.

Report: Ruth Madoff Agrees To Forfeit $80M

UPDATE I: Could 10 More People Face Charges in Madoff Ponzi Scheme Scandal?

It is rather hard to believe that only one man knew what was going on during the largest financial swindle in history. Will more be charged?

Federal authorities are pressing a probe of 10 associates of Bernard Madoff despite a sentence that means the mastermind of one of the biggest financial frauds in history will spend the rest of his days behind bars, The Associated Press has learned.

A person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, wouldn’t detail potential charges or say whether the 10 would include Madoff’s family or former employees. So far, only Madoff and an accountant accused of failing to make basic auditing checks have been criminally charged in the multibillion-dollar hoax.