Bernard Madoff, accused of the largest fraud in U.S. history, will be allowed to remain in his $7 million Park Avenue apartment instead of being sent to jail, under terms of an agreement announced today by federal prosecutors. Madoff was unable to meet the bond conditions set last week by a federal magistrate which required him to get four people to sign his personal recognizance bond.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, only Madoff’s wife and brothers were willing to sign the document.
But instead of ordering him held in jail, prosecutors agreed to home detention with electronic monitoring.
Madoff and his luxury apartment on Manhattan’s upper east side will be fitted with an electronic monitoring device by the court’s pre-trial services and Madoff will be under a curfew of between 7 p.m. through 9 a.m. Madoff’s wife agreed to post the mansions in her name in Palm Beach, Florida and in Montauk on New York’s Long Island.
Madoff reportedly admitted to FBI agents last week that he had single-handedly pulled off a $50 billion scheme, defrauding a long list of investors.
That’ll teach him. At the minimum, they should cut off his Wii.
Ebbers meet Mr.Madoff. You both will have time to get to know each other.
You should take a poll. How many readers secretly admire Madoff because he ran a con for so many years.
Of those voting in the affirmative, how many of you work in the NY Division of the FBI?
Yes, lives ruined by a completely unjustified/unmitigated crime. With more facts that almost undoubtedly exist (eg–public meetings wherein Madoff advises 911 Widows to invest their money), I do think even financial crimes like this one justify the death penalty, risk of flight, high suicide risk.
Why this guy is not in jail facing the death penalty is beyond me.
For the accused, jail is not supposed to be punishment; it is only to assure the accused shows up for the trial and doesn’t run off.
If he is convicted, he won’t be allowed to do his time in his condo. In fact, he will probably lose all of his assets in the upcoming civil lawsuits.
3,
I’ll take that bet!
I’m sure that if this dude was indeed running a scam, 99% of his true assets belong to someone else…
3…
Forgot to add… And then, he can have a Ken Lay Attack just before jail, closed coffin and enjoy the rest of his life with Elvis.
Where is extraordinary rendition when we need it?
# 3 Alan said, “For the accused, jail is not supposed to be punishment; it is only to assure the accused shows up for the trial and doesn’t run off.”
Exactly. As long as the guy shows up for trial it doesn’t matter at all. Plus, less taxpayer $ than jail.
I bet one of the people he bilked will be sore enough about it to show up at his condo and put a bullet in him.
This guy has the assets and methods to flee the country to avoid prosecution. I’m sure his US assets are frozen, but not off shore accounts. He is a much greater flight risk than a poor bastard collared for a petty theft.
The headline says Madoff was unable to make bond so he was given house arrest.
Under current law, a defendant has the right to bail unless there is sufficient reason not to grant it. The main reasons for refusing bail according to the Bail Act 1976 are that there are substantial grounds for believing that the defendant (1) will flee; (2) will commit further offences while on bail; or (3) will interfere with witnesses. Conditions may be applied to the grant of bail, such as living at a particular address or, rarely, paying an amount into court or having someone act as surety.
Shouldn’t he be “in jail” if he can’t make bail??? With a 50 Billion Dollar fraud, yes, I would think the risk of him being killed or committing suicide, or fleeing, or interfering with witnesses, or committing further crimes (to move the money around) are so likely as to justify no bail allowed.
Besides, fraud like this “should be” a capital offense. Again, no bail allowed.
“Madoff’s wife agreed to post the mansions in her name in Palm Beach, Florida and in Montauk on New York’s Long Island.”
There’s the bail.
Where is extraordinary rendition when we need it?
I think I saw Extraordinary Rendition open for The Who in the early 80s.
IIRC when caught, he basically gave up the scam completely, no denials. He’s likely to plead guilty rather than put up any reasonable defense, so he’s not much of a flight risk.
#10 – Bobo
>>Besides, fraud like this “should be” a
>>capital offense.
Why, because a bunch of millionaires and billionaires got schtupped, rather than Joe Blow from Idaho?
Mustard, no sympathy for the millionaires, “but” at 50Billion, I assume many Joe Blows were involved. I only know of one large charity that lost 10% of their portfolio that was invested with Madoff that came to a 30 Million dollar loss. I do assume that charity benefitted Joe Blows. I think I read that several Large Pension Plans were likewise invested.
Its sad, but there just aren’t that many millionaires to think that Joe Blow isn’t the usual victim of these frauds.
Good show on now recounting complaints filed with SEC 3-4 years ago that Madoff was running a Ponzi Scheme. They didn’t yell loud enough I guess. Make me wonder just what the SEC DOES DO????
Anybody know?
Bobbo- perhaps this will help.
“A top Securities and Exchange Commission compliance official who worked for the SEC when it found no problems at Bernard Madoff’s firm in 2005, later began to date and married Madoff’s niece, who was a compliance lawyer for the company.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/WallStreet/story?id=6471863&page=1
Now, lets see if they hold this or any other SEC “official” accountable. I bet not.
As for millionaires, there are people who have legitimately worked there asses off to obtain that so called status, which is not what it used to be. They don’t deserve to be tossed overboard with this greedy bastard.
#14 – Bobbo
>>Mustard, no sympathy for the millionaires,
>>“but” at 50Billion, I assume many Joe Blows
>>were involved.
Well, there may have been a few Joe Blows who got caught up in the collateral damage. I haven’t been paying too much attention to the victims of this scam, but I did see mention of the white-shoe set at the Palm Beach Country Club, and the MarketWatch guy whose wife worked for the “Keep The Jewish Race Pure” charity.
On the whole, to get your money ivested with this guy, you had to be a lot more than Joe Blow; he wasn’t doing IRAs for gypsy plumbers in Ohio. Madoff had a small number of ultra-high net worth clients; that’s why he was able to pull off a scam like this. If he had to doctor up statements for tens or hundreds of thousands of clients, he would have needed an army of co-conspirators.
And because a relatively small the ultra-rich got schtupped, it’s been headline news for a week.
#15 – McC
I don’t know what Bobbo is saying (like usual), but what I am saying is that the reason this scam has riveted the eyes of the entire world since it was discovered is because a handful of multi-millionaires and billionaires got bitten. If the same thing had been perpetrated on a similar number of guys making $65,000/yr, we’d be lucky to read about it in the local paper.
The millionaires don’t deserve to be tossed overboard with Madoff, but there is a much greater probability that the $65,000/yr guys would have been tossed over without a second look.
#15–Thanks McCullough, interesting read. Looks like he did make a 10 Million Dollar Bond? Early reporting is fun to run with.
I have no problem at all with an SEC Official marrying a Madoff Relative. And at least the SEC did take action against Mark Cuban and Martha Stewart.
Individuals are important but small fry. SEC should be going after the rating agencies. Spitzer was and should have continued doing a good job in this area.
America–so silly about “over regulation” drug laws, universal healthcare, free market, sex etc. Harder and harder to identify anything that we do right.
Mustard, this case warrants reporting regardless of who the investors were. It shows the incompetency of the SEC, it is a huge long running scam, and the guy admitted to it up front. The guy is “the Father of Wallstreet” (or whatever.)
I still refer you to those charities. Pure jewish blood or not, those charities and pension plans benefited Joe Blow and Joseph Blowstein in the thousands.
I think McCullough’s article implied that some aspect of Madoff’s investment circle only had 17 clients==but it was not clearly written. Probably my inability to grok the punctuation.
This total BS and in addition after having “stolen” billions, his fine if convicted will only be about 15 million!! This crook should go to prison penny-less and those who were ripped off should get his spoils.
#17 – Bobbo
I didn’t say the SEC shouldn’t be gone after. And the reason they ARE going to be gone after is because a handful of the super-rich got schtupped.
As to the charities (I don’t think he did pensions), the only one I know of is the MarketWatch guy’s wife’s employer, whose web site states that “Our mission is helping to keep our children Jewish, thus reversing the trend of assimilation and intermarriage.“.
Could be worse, but I doubt I’d be donating any money to it. Sounds a little to much like the kid with the rejected birthday cake for my tastes.
They need to use a pneumatic nail gun to firmly prevent his testicles from leaving the kitchen counter. Then when all parties are ready for trial a simple procedure with a claw hammer and Bernie is ready for court.
Madoff client list here:
http://clusterstock.alleyinsider.com/2008/12/bernie-madoff-hosed-client-list
Some good folks got the shaft.
#23 – Bobbo
Most of the entities listed are either hedge funds or banks. I’m kind of bummed about Frank Lautenberg (he became my hero when he sponsored the bill that made it illegal to smoke on airplanes), and it’s too bad about Uma Thurman’s fiancé (although as a multi-billionaire, I suppose $300,000,000 won’t hurt too much).
Looking at the list kind of makes me think that “ helping to keep our children Jewish, thus reversing the trend of assimilation and intermarriage” may not be such a good thing after all. Maybe if the hedge fund guy had a nice shiksa (like his fiancée Uma) looking over his shoulder, he wouldn’t have blindly trusted Madoff with that much cash. Due diligence would have protected a lot of these folks from their schtupping.
To the whole bunch of them…Jump You Fuckers!
#23. Elie Wiesel’s Foundation For Humanity is on that list. That is sinking pretty low.
#2, well, the Coinage Act of 1792 made debasement of the gold and silver coins by mint workers for profit a crime punishable by death. So I support your idea =D
Could the morons at the SEC be charged with Criminal Incompetence??? I mean, $50B was treated like $50 by so many for so long and none-the-wiser in the slightest? The SEC was like a willing accomplice to this hyper-scam.
Yeah, riiiight, there’s not going to be any graft or, outright stealing with $1 Trillion for Obamanation’s infrastructure spending.
Crooked Lawyers. Crooked Politicians. Liberal Stupid fucking Judges. Crooked CEOs. Is there any wonder why you can’t get an AR 15 after Hussein’s election? Me? I’m stocking up.
I wish I could say something witty, but all I have in my head right now is anti-semitic rant.