“I am deeply sorry for the scam.”
He is protecting his wife
Bernard Madoff has pled guilty to all 11 charges surrounding a $50 billion ponzi scheme, BBC News reports. The charges include four counts of fraud, three counts of money laundering, making false statements, perjury, making a false filing to the US financial watchdog, and theft from an employee benefit plan. Prosecutors are seeking a 150-year sentence for the 70-year-old financier. The exact sentence will not be known for a few months.
Madoff perpetrated a pyramid scheme where early investors were paid off with the money of new clients. He pled guilty before New York Judge Denny Chin on the morning of Thursday, March 12.
He would not plea, would not cooperate
What prosecutors had hoped for is a plea bargain where Madoff would agree to reveal others who were involved in this unprecedented operation. Madoff refused, which may exempt his wife Ruth Madoff, Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities employees and others from severe penalty.
Since his December arrest, Madoff had been confined to his luxury Manhattan apartment. Now, he’s enjoying the amenities of jail, a personal loan of his freedom for… what? Show them the money, Bernie!
“The greatest con artists in history”
Madoff, a former NASDAQ chairman, has been a big name on Wall Street for 40 years. He knows the ins and outs, all of the angles. ” Defrauded investor and former Fort Lee, New Jersey mayor Burt Ross referred to him as “the greatest con artist in the history of the world.”
Ross told the BBC he “did not expect to recover a single cent of the $5 million” he invested.
“(Madoff) created a mystique and associated with extraordinarily well-respected and revered people, and so he was given the benefit of the doubt by financial regulators who blew it badly.”
What about all the money?
Investigators continue their efforts to recover the stolen money. Unfortunately, experts predict that a large percentage of the money will never be recovered. It is hidden so well that only a confession would reveal it, and Madoff refused to do this so as not to implicate people close to him.
Madoff’s rich investors will feel the sting, but ultimately not destroy them financially. However, many of Madoff’s investors were average working people who were conned into investing their savings. For them, picking up the pieces will be excruciating. Mark Raymond, a lawyer representing some of Madoff’s victims, point to victims like on retired couple from Atlanta.
“He’s 82, she’s 78, and they are both looking for work because they have lost everything,” he said.
Picking up the pieces… in a down economy… during your final years? Madoff should at least be their butler. Prison isn’t good enough…
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