150 Years for Sentencing People to Poverty

by Leigh Graham · 2009-06-29 11:00:00 UTC
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MADOFF FAILBernie Madoff got 150 years in prison today, the maximum sentence allowable for his decades-long Ponzi scheme securities fraud.  Though his lawyers asked for 12 years, and the Probation Dept. recommended 50, Judge Denny Chin pointed out the heinous depths of the crime and the fact that no one had spoke on Madoff's behalf - no family members, former colleagues, no one.

After this story broke, the news reports I heard varied between the elderly grandmother with her savings wiped out and the millions lost by wealthy, Boston area Jewish philanthropists.  As one person testifying at the sentencing hearing said today,

“He stole from the rich. He stole from the poor. He stole from the in between. He had no values,” said Tom Fitzmaurice. “He cheated his victims out of their money so he and his wife Ruth could live a life of luxury beyond belief.”

I think they're still figuring out how much money Madoff bilked in total, and I'd suspect that in the long run the wealthier among us were devastated by him.  There's only so much populist access to investing in this country.  But regardless, he single-handedly did push countless Americans, many of them older, into poverty by destroying their life savings at a time when their ability to go out and work and support themselves is relatively weak.  What a disgrace; if only we punished corporate malfeasance this severely and demonstratively all the time!

(lolBernie photo by Shiny Things)

Leigh Graham
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