Infamous wall street money manager Bernard Madoff has been sentenced to 150 years in jail for his masterminding of what has been called one of the greatest Ponzi schemes in history.
Madoff, 71, received the maximum sentence for each of the 11 fraud charges to which he pleaded guilty to in March. This included 20 years each on counts of securities fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, two counts of international money laundering, and making a false statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
He also received 10 years for money laundering, and five years each for investment-adviser fraud, making a false statement, perjury, and theft from an employee benefit plan. They are to be served consecutively.
According to the Bloomberg report, this is six times longer than the punishment meted out to the chief executives of WorldCom or Enron – the two biggest corporate fraud scandals in history. Former Enron chief Jeffrey Skilling, for example, is currently serving a 24 year jail sentence. No fine was imposed because Madoff has been ordered to surrender billions of dollars.
In December, Madoff confessed to operating a US$65 billion Ponzi scheme whereby money from new investors was used to repay old ones. In many cases, he swindled away the life savings of many of his victims.
In sentencing Madoff, US District Judge Denny Chin cited the financial fraudster’s failure to identify accomplices, making it harder for prosecutors to go after others involved in the scam, as a factor contributing to the severity of the punishment.
Judge Chin also added that no other fraud case so far was comparable to that perpetrated by Madoff, and thus wanted a sentence that symbolically reflected the gravity of the crimes committed. "Mr Madoff’s crimes were extraordinary evil," the judge said.
"I cannot offer you an excuse for my behavior," Madoff said on the day of his sentencing, according to Bloomberg news report.
It will now be up to the Federal Bureau of Prisons to decide where Madoff will serve his prison term. Madoff's defense lawyer Ira Sorkin has declined to say whether his client will appeal the sentence. Meanwhile, investigators are refocusing their attention now towards whether his employees knowingly aided Madoff in his scam.
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