Post by dgriffin on Jun 28, 2009 17:09:06 GMT -5
Here we are folks, the sentencing of Bernie Madoff. Either we have a marketplace governed by a system of laws and stiff penalties, or we have a limp noodle of enforcement which gets little respect. If we are so unfortunate to have the latter, no one will trust the market (or the government's regulation of it) in the future. That will cause all of us to lose additional wealth, either by stocks tumbling further or lost earnings in the future. If they don't put Bernie away for life and confiscate his wealth, including what he's managed to transfer to his family, you'll do better keeping any extra cash you may still have in an old shoe or a mattress. - Dave
Vilified symbol of greed Madoff to hear prison term
Sun Jun 28, 2009
By Grant McCool
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bernard Madoff, who became a symbol of greed in the financial crisis for masterminding Wall Street's biggest investment fraud, faces the rest of his life in prison in one of the stiffest punishments for white-collar crime when he is sentenced on Monday.
The courtroom drama will unfold with the swindler hearing angry defrauded investors speak of their financial ruin. As he makes what could be his final appearance in public, Madoff, 71, will read a statement before a judge hands down a decision.
In a Ponzi scheme early investors are paid with money from new clients.
About 1,341 account holders lost about $13 billion in the classic "cash in, cash out" fraud, according to court papers. They also say $170 billion flowed through Madoff's principal account over decades and last November, Madoff claimed accounts held nearly $65 billion, when in fact he had never traded any securities, investigators said.
Madoff, a former nonexecutive chairman of the Nasdaq stock market, pleaded guilty in March to 11 charges, including securities fraud, money laundering and perjury that carry a combined maximum sentence of 150 years. The only other person charged so far is his outside accountant.
"It is unlikely that he will come back out," Jayne Barnard, a law professor at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, said, echoing the view of several legal experts on the likely sentence for an audacious scheme.
Continued...
www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE55P6O520090628