Reuters/Shepard via Yahoo! News
Calling Ponzi-scheming, money-stealing Bernard Madoff's crimes "extremely evil," Judge Denny Chin sentenced the fake financier to the maximum possible sentence, 150 years in jail. Applause erupted in the crowded courtroom, where minutes before Madoff faced some of his many victims in what authorities say is a $65 billion fraud scheme.
"I’m responsible for a great deal of suffering and pain, I understand that,” Madoff, 71, told victims in the Manhattan courtroom. “I live in a tormented state now, knowing all of the pain and suffering that I’ve created. I’ve left a legacy of shame, as some of my victims have pointed out, to my family and my grandchildren...I will turn and face you. I’m sorry. I know that doesn’t help you.”
The judge rejected all Madoff's pleas for a far-lesser sentence. Madoff's lawyer, Ira Lee Sorkin, argued 12 years should do it because he'd be 83 by then, his life expectancy, so it would be tantamount to a life sentence. But the judge didn't agree. Chin noted that no friends, family or other supporters submitted any letters on Madoff's behalf. Not one letter saying deep down he really is a good guy who made a really big mistake. Could be because what he did was completely indefensible. Prosecutors say Madoff never made any investments with money "invested" with his firm. Instead, he used the money from new investors to pay returns to existing clients, and to finance a pretty nice lifestyle for his family.
The next step in this sad mess, which hit famous wealthy people like Steven Spielberg and Kevin Bacon along with the not-so-famous, like Dominic Ambosino, a retired New York City corrections officer living in a mobile home community, is to find whatever money can be found to give back to victims.
The Madoffs are required to sell a $7 million Manhattan apartment, where his wife, Ruth, currently lives; an $11 million estate in Palm Beach, Fla.; a $4 million home on Long Island; and a $2.2 million boat. That's a start.
The victims wanted no less than the maximum sentence and they got it. But it still doesn't take away the fact that many were swindled out of their present and their future by someone they trusted. Do you think the sentence is harsh, or completely justified?
