Bernie Madoff hit the jackpot at sentencing, today… getting the maximum 150 years. The Guardian [1]:
The disgraced financier Bernie Madoff has been sentenced to the maximum 150 years in prison for masterminding a $65bn (£38bn) fraud that wrecked the lives of thousands of investors [2].
The US district judge Denny Chin described the fraud as “staggering” and said the “breach of trust was massive” and that a message was being sent by the sentence. There had been no letters submitted in support of Madoff’s character, he said. Victims in the courtroom clapped as the term was read out.
The sentence, which means the 71-year old fraudster will end his days in prison, was handed down at an emotional hearing in a lower Manhattan courtroom, where victims were given the chance to tell how the fraud had destroyed their livelihoods.
Ya know, there’s no question in my mind the guy deserved it. And more, in my view. But, I have to tell you, I wonder of the sentence would be so stiff, but for the current ‘kill the rich’ message coming from our government of late. There seems to me a desire on the part of some to label all the well- to- do as criminals, (the only way one can be rich is if they’ve stolen it) and this case will serve as a reinforcement for that effort.