Courtesy AP
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How many years will he get?
Saying he was “deeply sorry and ashamed,” Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty Thursday to pulling off perhaps the biggest swindle in Wall Street history and was immediately led off to jail in handcuffs after his seething victims applauded in the courtroom.
U.S. District Judge Denny Chin denied bail for Madoff, 70, and ordered him to jail, noting that he had the means to flee and an incentive to do so because of his age.
“I am actually grateful for this opportunity to publicly comment about my crimes, for which I am deeply sorry and ashamed,” he said.
“As the years went by, I realized my risk and this day would inevitably come. I cannot adequately express how sorry I am for my crimes.”
“I don’t think he has a sincere bone in his body,” said DeWitt [Baker], who noted that prison time would be too good for Madoff. “I’d stone him to death,” he said.
Madoff did not look at any of the three investors who spoke at the hearing, even when one turned in his direction and tried to address him.
The fraud, which prosecutors say may have totaled nearly $65 billion, turned a revered money man into an overnight global disgrace whose name became synonymous with the current economic meltdown.
$65 billion? Chump change when compared with the Obama bailout that may have been partially a result of this.
Phydeau
Email and letters are not going to help put some one in jail for breaking the law. Sorry. If you give gov’t all the power, there will be no one around to blow the whistle.
You folks are calling for more regulation but you understand that this bozo was under suspicion for close to a decade and on numerous times the gov’t was contacted about it and the SEC did NOTHING.
Why you guys have faith in gov’t baffles me. At best, gov’t is incompetent. When companies screw up, they fold (or at least they should). When gov’t screws up, they tax. When companies do something unfair or illegal, I have faith that *other* companies or investors are going to blow the whistle.
Where are the forensic accountants? Where are the FBI financial fraud experts? I want to know some details: just where did all the money go and just how much of it was there? Also, how the hell did he get away with not actually buying any of the Billions of $$ worth of securities that were supposedly the company’s assets?
And so on.
Will we ever know, or will the judges in the various (likely hundreds if not thousands) civil lawsuits gag everybody for the approximately fifty years these cases will drag through the courts?
People told the SEC he was a fraud and the SEC failed to do anything.
Why didn’t someone just call a cop? A Ponzi scheme is illegal at every level of law enforcement.
NYPD, State Police, even the Post Office could have put a halt to his operation. Especially the Post Office.
Missed headline opportunity:
“USPS goes postal on Bernard Madoff”
lol.. you naive kiddies..
this is all a sham. LOOK at him..he is being carted off to jail and he is **smiling** !
he not even going to Rikers Island.
he’s staying at the fed remand center across the street from the court house until june.
-big f’n deal. he’s a connected white collar criminal and all his buddies are envious. he’ll prolly end up in the minimum security Fairton camp in NJ..only like 100-200 people there..which is a dormitory setup.
-please.
-this was planned..for what, 20-30 years?
it’s not the end of the story. *he was not busted, his kid or lawyer supposedly phoned him in. the feds had no clue..
either he has a plan B which sees him *disappear* -fake a death on the inside
and/or out of the country before years end
if he makes it to sentencing
..or he is taking the fall for some Bigtime Majors and this nothing but a grandiose symbolic public gesture by all those
involved in the cover up. (AIG) to give
the public it’s day in court on the matter.
it’s all symbolism.
no doubt his silence means his family will
be well taken care of by his partners.
-for a man of 70, family should be his only care.
sorry, this was all too neat and easy.
there is a caper afoot. someone this slick doesn’t fess up to the crime of the
century without ulterior motives.
-nor look that suave on his last day of freedom.
personally, i think the scam IS the
scam and the majority of said victims
are in on it.
he says he ripped off $50b+ –
meanwhile it’s probably like $50mil
and 90% of the “victims” get to write
off billions they never had in the first
place on losses to the scam.
they got themselves a tidy tax
break at our expense.
its a joke. (hence him grinning above –
has the same smirk as the first day
walking into court)
the bankers, the people in #13’s post and hundreds more are all ripping off America
*legally* before they send us all to the poor house..madoff and his “victims” are just playing their parts.
i know it my gut.
-s
Email and letters are not going to help put some one in jail for breaking the law. Sorry. If you give gov’t all the power, there will be no one around to blow the whistle.
You’d be surprised. If one percent of every congressman’s constituents wrote to their congressman, that would be thousands or millions of emails. But writing your congressmen is more for convincing them to pass laws so more Madoffs don’t get away with this stuff. And what’s this about “give gov’t all the power”? Last I checked, we’re not a dictatorship — the ultimate power rests with the people who get off their asses and go vote.
You folks are calling for more regulation but you understand that this bozo was under suspicion for close to a decade and on numerous times the gov’t was contacted about it and the SEC did NOTHING.
That’s right, and why is that? Because Republicans were running the executive branch, and Republicans don’t believe in silly little things like regulating businesses.
Read up on that peanut butter plant salmonella case — the inspectors told their bosses the plant was failing inspection, but the big bosses were appointed by Bush & Co., and their mandate was not to regulate, but to get burdensome government regulation off the backs of the corporations. And we see where this goes.
Republicans believe government is the problem, not the solution… they’ve been saying it loud and proud for years. So why is anyone surprised that when Republicans get elected, government doesn’t work? If you owned a company, would you hire a CEO that doesn’t believe in what your company does? Of course not. So we need to elect people to run our government who believe that government can be a force for good in the country. That rules out Republicans.
Watch out for the falling price of your house
# 38 Phydeau said, “That’s right, and why is that? Because Republicans were running the executive branch,”
Like when Enron pulled its scams? LOL!
Libs are sooo brain damaged.
troll, troll, troll your boat… 🙂
Shocking Video Unearthed Democrats in their own words Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs
Regulation was clearly the issue. Were laws in place to prevent this? Yes.
The role of the executive is to enforce the law as written by the legislature and interpreted by the judicial system.
Bush failed. In time, history will show how his “business-friendly” attitude got in the way of his constitutional role. Historians will also point out that the chant of “less regulation” was a hoax perpetuated by the conservative media.
Still waiting for a right-winger to explain how this Madoff mess could have been prevented by less regulation…
crickets…
# 44 pedro said, “#41 How lame.”
Yeah, well don’t expect Fido to comment on the video showing the Dems yelling for less oversight & regs on Fanny & Freddie… LOL.
#47 Here’s more on one of the Dem criminals in congress. You can see her on the video I posted trying to block House banking oversight.
http://foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/13/rep-waters-fires-times-report-bailout-controversy/
#45, Education.
Instead of trying to protect everyone, why not educate them on the pitfalls of listening to confidence men.
Teach them how to stand up for themselves.
Teach them to come up with original ideas and how to work for a living instead of trying to mooch off of someone else.
Teach them to produce.
#27, Chuck,
Quite correct.
This whole thing reminds me of when someone gets busted for drugs. The police have a habit of doubling the price that would have been realized if the drugs were sold at the smallest and most expensive amount possible.
*
Without defending the guy, I do admire him in a certain Robin Hood kind of way. He only took money from those who could afford it. He never advertised and people had to ask him to invest. Those that did get caught should have known better, they weren’t as unsophisticated as regular investors.
The other part I didn’t mention is how it all fell apart.
Madoff decided it had gone too long. So he told his sons who had known nothing about how this worked. The sons then contacted the FBI the next day with Madoff’s blessing. When the FBI visited him at home, he confessed, then invited the FBI into his apartment, served coffee, and answered their questions.
#49, LibertyPoser,
Instead of trying to protect everyone, why not educate them on the pitfalls of listening to confidence men.
Typical right wing nut Liebertarian fall back.
Not everyone can be an expert in everything. So, collectively through our government, we regulate businesses.
Very few people are expert enough in pathogens to check their peanut butter or “fresh” hamburg. Not everyone is expert enough to inspect a new car for safety issues. Not everyone is expert enough to fly an airplane or determine its airworthiness. Not everyone is expert enough to determine a new drug’s efficacy or side effects.
All those and many more are the reasons society regulates itself. Since all of us are not experts in all things, society also hires experts to validate that businesses are following the regulations.
Teach them to come up with original ideas and how to work for a living instead of trying to mooch off of someone else.
Spoken like the poser you are. You don’t have a job and my bet is you have never worked at anything bigger than Cow-Patty’s poopcycle stand.
I really like how those who are still in High School think they know it all.
#50–Fusion==”Without defending the guy, I do admire him in a certain Robin Hood kind of way.” //// I’m a liberal tax the rich anti Liberty Poser anti-LIE-BERTARIAN sort of guy, but I don’t think Maddoff’s crime is any less odious because he robbed innocent/trusting rich folks. I can modify what you say to make it more defensible, but thats your job.
That said (to parallel your own construction) I have read references to the notion that “certain” of his investors thought that the unbelievable high rate of return was based on a belief that Madoff was trading or or manipulating stock prices with insider information.
I don’t know if that is true==only that for those who thought they were on the inside track, yes, they were a con man’s legendary mark. Most investors are not that venal. Just uniformed/UNSOPHISTICATED people who happened to have a lot of money to invest.
#52, Poison Twin,
Not everyone can be an expert in everything. So, collectively through our government, we regulate businesses.
How’s that been working out for ya the last 100 years or so? Is your dollar still worth what it was?
Very few people are expert enough in pathogens to check their peanut butter or “fresh” hamburg. Not everyone is expert enough to inspect a new car for safety issues. Not everyone is expert enough to fly an airplane or determine its airworthiness. Not everyone is expert enough to determine a new drug’s efficacy or side effects.
And these can’t be handled by multiple private third party companies why?
UL is a classic example just in case you didn’t know that.
He hid money away all over the place, trying to make the crime pay for his wife & kids. Some of it is still unaccounted for.
And these can’t be handled by multiple private third party companies why?
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Maybe it’s just me, but I think preventing U.S. citizens from being poisoned by bad medicine, killed by bad surgery, or die in a fiery car crash in a defective car — I think those fall under “promote the general Welfare”. So those are appropriate things for the federal government to do.
But I’m kidding myself, I’m talking to a libertarian.
# 56 Phydeau said, “Maybe it’s just me, but I think preventing U.S. citizens from being poisoned by bad medicine, killed by bad surgery, or die in a fiery car crash in a defective car — I think those fall under “promote the general Welfare”.”
It’s just you. You confuse “promote” with “provide”. Try a dictionary.
Paddy O’Troll, you do occasionally say something coherent. This is not one of those occasions, but thanks for trolling. 🙂
#53, Bobbo,
I see where you are coming from, but I am not venerating the man. Even Robin Hood was a criminal. As was John Wilkes Booth, William Tell, Jesse James, and Guy Fawkes. Yet they all have their admirers.
If Madoff wanted to just be a shit he would have opened up his scheme to anyone that came knocking. He didn’t. He crafted it so those who should have been sophisticated enough and could afford it were the ones he took advantage of. Regardless, he stole with flair and will end up doing time for it. Most likely the rest of his life.
#56, Phydeau,
Good reply. It is the comments like this that I am glad to see beat me to it.
#57, Cow-Paddy, Ignorant Shit Talking Sociopath, Retired Mall Rent-A-Cop, Pretend Constitutional Scholar, Fake California Labor Law Expert, Pseudo Military Historian, Phony Climate Scientist, and Real Leading Troll Extraordinare,
promote
Verb
[-moting, -moted]
1. to encourage the progress or success of: all attempts to promote a lasting ceasefire have failed
2. to raise to a higher rank or position
3. to encourage the sale of (a product) by advertising
4. to work for: he actively promoted reform
(bold = my emphasis)
Yup, I’m sure that is correct. To promote the General Welfare is to encourage it to be better. If society wants the government to be our watchdog then what better way of promoting could there be than to regulate and oversee the activity?
Of course, if you don’t care about eating lead, taking a medicine that makes your pecker fall off (oh, you have already, oopps,), or allows your water heater to blow up then go for it. Make the world a better place.
#54, LibertyPoser,
Not everyone can be an expert in everything. So, collectively through our government, we regulate businesses.
How’s that been working out for ya the last 100 years or so? Is your dollar still worth what it was?
Actually, my dollar is still worth 100 cents. Society has been better served by regulations than by unrestrained businesses. In Madoff’s case the system failed. But he is going to jail because he did commit a crime.
And these can’t be handled by multiple private third party companies why?
Simply because business has shown time and time again it can not regulate itself. For example, take our Georgia peanut butter plant. Bacterial samples were tested by private labs, none of whom bothered to report the positive findings to the government. Toys were given away as gifts when the manufacturer knew they contained lead. Hamburg has remained on store shelves being bought even though the manufacturer knew the lot was contaminated with e. Coli 159.
UL is a classic example just in case you didn’t know that.
Nope. Poor example. UL answers to those who own it and pay for its services, NOT Americans that are exposed to those products. I’ve worked with UL before and even they warn you of their short comings. A better example would be CSA (Canadian Standards Association). A quasi independent, business owned, organization that has the power of law to back it up. If you ever have the choice of buying an electrical item with a UL approval or one with a CSA approval, take the later. It meets a much higher standard. They are, however, the exception and only because the Canadian Government has given them some teeth.
#59–Fusion==I think you are making things up rather than just admit your are wrong or rephrase to specifically identify what you are talking about.
You say you are not “venerating” Madoff, list a few people, then say they all have their admirers.
Robin Hood can be venerated and admired by reasonable people. To emphasize the point: Robin Hood stole from the EVIL rich, to give to the deserving poor. Madoff did not do that. There is NO WAY to admire Madoff.
It “sounds good” but what is this “flair” you see in Madoff?
It sounds good but in what way were many of Madoff’s victims “supposed to be” sophisticated? Keven Bacon==high school drop out musician turned movie star. Where is he supposed to get his financial expertise? Same with all the widows? Same with all the charities who hired experts who took their fees and simply turned the money over to Madoff unbeknownst and lying to their clients? etc.
Just curious.
#61/62, Poison Twin,
I had a long(er) post written up. Then I found this article (and several others). It turns we are both wrong and both right. The government does use private inspectors but they are hobbled by government regulations to do anything about their findings. Sigh.
http://tinyurl.com/c3mbyh
On the surface, it appears to support the hypothesis that only the government can do the job right. But if you read the entire article, you’ll see the problem isn’t inspections. It is the the spaghetti regulations currently in force. More regulations aren’t going to help because they can’t address the problem: there are too many to evade any regulations through finger pointing.
You’ve got to start stomping on the violators when you find them.
Here is a suggestion:
Start holding the auditors responsible for their inspections and start holding the plants responsible for following the auditors’ recommendations.
And, of course, using peanut butter inspectors and not bakery inspectors at peanut butter plants.
Re: UL Poor example.
Perhaps. I was in a hurry to get out of the office. There are many other companies that operate under a license to do inspections on behalf of the government to help enforce regulations.
If you are truly interested, I’ll dig up a list for you.
UL answers to those who own it and pay for its services, NOT Americans that are exposed to those products.
OF COURSE THEY DO. They don’t do it for free. However, the stamp of approval is supposed to something. Just because it doesn’t have “Federal” in its stamp doesn’t mean it isn’t any less important. Companies pay these companies to rate their products and if they pass, they get a stamp of approval. It is in the best interest of these types of companies to ensure they are in compliance and not influenced by outside pressure to remain honest and fair in their evaluations. Otherwise, companies would no longer use their services and they would be out of business.
#63, Bobbo,
I do not “worship” Madoff. I have said he committed a crime and will spend a long time behind bars.
However, he did show some scruples with whom he would take money.
The “charities” all used money managers or had professionals advising them. People like Kevin Bacon also have and use professional managers. Whether these “professionals” were actually diligent is another question.
My own, unsubstantiated opinion or take, is that he was thumbing his nose at the “system”. He didn’t need the money, being wealthy enough from other endeavors. He didn’t take money from “ordinary” people. And, when caught, he didn’t deny it and didn’t try to run.