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The Madoff Message
Christine Cornell / AP Photo
An extraordinary jail term for an “extraordinarily evil” fraud isn’t just for Bernie Madoff, writes Allan Dodds Frank from the courthouse. It’s a signal to all of Wall Street.
PLUS: View Allan Dodds Frank’s reaction to the “intensity” of the hearing.
PLUS: Allan Dodds Frank reports from Palm Beach on Ruth’s sister trying to cope with her losses.
When Bernard “The Beast” Madoff finally looked at his victims for 10 seconds in court Monday, his insincerity was compelling. “I apologize to my victims. I will turn and face you,” the 71-year swindler in a Savile Row-tailored charcoal-gray suit said flatly: “I am sorry. I know that doesn’t help you.”
Unruffled, except perhaps for missing collar stays in his pale blue Charvet shirt set off with a dark tie, Madoff talked for a little more than five minutes. His theme: “I cannot offer an excuse for my behavior… I don’t ask any forgiveness.” Madoff added: “How do you excuse lying and deceiving a wife who stood by you for 50 years and still stands by you?”
Their collective message to Wall Street and the rest of the financial industry is crystal clear: Cut it out.
Eight minutes later, Madoff barely moved as U.S. District Judge Denny Chin sentenced him to 150 years in prison. The front two rows of victims cheered and applauded. Ira Lee Sorkin, Madoff's lawyer, told The Daily Beast his client seemed impassive to the 150-year sentence because "he was expecting the worst." Sorkin declined to discuss anything Madoff said to him, but conceded Madoff has lost some weight in prison. Asked whether Bernie had ever shed a tear, had cried in court or in custody, Sorkin said only: "At some time in the last seven months, he did. I can't say when or where."
Many of the reporters and lawyers in the crowd of 250 people jammed into the court’s ceremonial ninth-floor courtroom had predicted a sentence between 30 to 40 years, not the full 150 years sought by the Justice Department.
Madoff’s insincerity already had sunk in with the judge, who dismissed the defense's contention the swindler has offered meaningful cooperation to investigators. “I simply do not get the sense that Mr. Madoff has done all he could,” he said, “or told all he knows.”
Judge Chin also scoffed at the defense notion that a harsh sentence (officially categorized as 1,800 months) would amount to succumbing to the “mob vengeance” being urged some of Madoff’s 8,000-plus victims.
“The message must be sent that Mr. Madoff’s crimes were extraordinarily evil,” Chin said. “In a society governed by the rule of law, Mr. Madoff will get what he deserves.”
In the modern era, the stiffest white-collar crime sentences have been around 25 years, including former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers and former Exxon executive Jeffrey Skilling.
Regardless of whether it survives appeal, Judge Chin’s willingness to give Madoff a sentence 11 times longer than he is expected to live should set the pants on fire of the white-collar criminal-defense bar. Especially since the Obama Justice Department had sought the 150-year maximum, which the judge embraced without hestitation.
Their collective message to Wall Street and the rest of the financial industry is crystal clear: Cut it out. And assuming he is still reading the newspapers—the great nobleman of Antigua, “Sir" Allen Stanford—should be praying that the federal judges in the district where he will be tried do not feel as though they have to measure up to the big guys on the bench in the Southern District of New York.
Madoff confessed his “$50 billion Ponzi scheme” last December 10 to his brother Peter and his sons Andrew and Mark, and was arrested last December 11. He was criminally charged March 10 and has been behind bars since pleading guilty March 12. Judge Chin said his sentence—officially “1800 months”—was for 11 felony counts to be served consecutively. Six of the 11 counts carry 20-year maximums, four carry five years each and one is 10 years.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Obama, the Un-decider
Lee Siegel has written about culture and politics and is the author of three books: Falling Upwards: Essays in Defense of the Imagination; Not Remotely Controlled: Notes on Television; and, most recently, Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob. In 2002, he received a National Magazine Award for reviews and criticism.
Marc Rich Spills His Secrets
Allan Dodds Frank is a business investigative correspondent who specializes in white collar crime. He also is President of the Overseas Press Club of America, one of the many journalism organizations that protests the arrests of journalists abroad and repression of freedom of speech.
Madoff Secrets Go to the Grave
Allan Dodds Frank is a business investigative correspondent who specializes in white collar crime. He also is President of the Overseas Press Club of America, one of the many journalism organizations that protests the arrests of journalists abroad and repression of freedom of speech.
The Real Bailout Hero
Allan Dodds Frank is a business investigative correspondent who specializes in white collar crime. He also is President of the Overseas Press Club of America, one of the many journalism organizations that protests the arrests of journalists abroad and repression of freedom of speech.
I am oh so glad that the judge recognized the value of the "figurative" deaths that Madoff is responsible for in this case.
I was listening to NPR on the drive home today. The Madoff piece revealed he must serve 85% of the time handed down in Federal court before being considered for parole. GLORY BE AND HALLELUJIAH!!
This is the very LEAST that Madoff can sacrifice given the horror he's inflicted on so many people.
There are some things worse than death--like the worry of how you'll feed and shelter yourself when you're approaching retirement, or how you'll fare as an old person who needs any kind of quality health care in this country.
Madoff is guilty of slowly murdering many people; as if he's administering some gruesome poison to them. I venture to say that he's every bit as malignant than any serial killer.
Don't be fooled by the grey hair and the hang-dog countenance--he's EVIL. And absolutely and utterly lacking a conscience--despite the "I'm sorry" he so perfunctorily spit out in court. He's a changeling. He "knows" how to play the part of the repentant sinner to an audience. Look away and don't fall for it.
What BM did was peanuts compared with what AIGoldman, Fannie, Freddie, the ratings agencies, the CPA audit outfits etc. etc. have done. BM stole billions. "Wall Street" has stolen trillions. Dick Fuld is just as guilty as BM. So are the MDs of the rest of the investment banks. Hopefully there are a lot of perp walks in the pipeline. George Patton
George
At what point does ruthless, unfettered,legally-sanctioned thievery become "troublesome" to you?
I sense that your set-point for "absolute ugliness and low-ness in the human species" must be abysmally low; otherwise, what am I to make of your having difficulty computing how your low-point intersects,in a meaningful way,with the living,breathing rest of us rational and loving humans?
If your going to criticize someone with your mindless twaddle at least stay on point.
jimmygee
Ouch!
By way of explanation: When I wrote my response the GPatton, I'd had 2-hours' sleep, 14-hours' hard work (with no chance to eat) and a huge glass of wine at the end of the day. Admittedly, that rendered me the weaker opponent in terms of argument.So I'll cop to the "mindless twaddle" thing here (to some degree). I admit that my response amounted to a "paragraph to nowhere," intellectually.
But then YOU don't even bother to concern yourself with any "nit-picking" trivialities of expression (e.g. using "your"--instead of "you're") as you belittled me for "mindless twaddle".
Perplexing, indeed.
I steadfastly contend that--even in the throes of mental exhaustion--Mr. Patton's "arguments" are categorically abrasive, reactionary, and far too invested in blaming the victims of fraud rather than its perps.
What Madoff did was reprehensible--I don't care what you're "measuring" his outrageous acts against--(Fannie, Freddie or otherwise); nor how you factor in the intelligence of his "investors."
So, feel free to deem my commentary "mindless twaddle." But I assure you: I'm not mindless. I'm not a simpleton. (Though I may, on occasion, be guilty of hitting the "Submit" when I ought to have just called it a night.)
I was exasperated with what I perceived as GPatton's willingness (almost eagerness) to minimize the damage Madoff perpetrated. He seems to ridicule the "idiocy" of Madoff's victims.This only serves to distract from Madoff's wanton greed.
Here, Here!!
As for Spinoza's thoughtless comment, BM's victims are responsible for patently failing to conduct due diligence (which incidentally is not the SEC's bailiwick no matter what the public believes). The entire economy is Goldman et al's victim. There is NO REASON for taxpayers to be on the hook for AIG and others who failed to understand their exposure
Now that they've taken care of Madoff, now they can continue the "Unlimited Legal Discovery" of JP Morgan Chase and its CEO Jamie Dimon in the Washington Mutual Inc. - WAMUQ Bankruptcy Case in Delaware. Judge Walrath is due to rule on many other issues soon including a $4 Billion WAMUQ Deposit that Jamie Dimon absurdly thinks is his. The Washington Mutual Lawyers have Mr. Dimon's and Ms. Sheila Bair of the FDIC's Deposition ready to go unless Justice Is Served and Shareholders are finally paid their due compensation from the "Biggest Bank Heist In History". Ask yourself this, why would the biggest Law Firms in the World have taken this Case if there was not a Jamie Dimon Smoking Gun of Guilt? Time to "Pay The Piper" Mr Dimon for what you conspired to steal. Maybe Dimon and Madoff can share a Jail Cell?
I'm old, I know, but I could have sworn that Jeffrey Skilling was at Enron, not Exxon...
When would the apathetic, misguided and uninformed voters deliver a collective and crystal clear message to the politicians in Washington running a Ponzi scheme thousands of times of Madoff magtitude: cut it out?
The moral turpitude involved in theft greatly varies. The good Sisters of St. Joesph taught me that a man who steals a few dollars to by bread to keep from starving committs no sin at all. Few would censure very harshly a person who steals from the Mafia. But Madoff's theft involved the betrayal of his mentor, his family, his friends, his business associates, the public, and Eli Wiesel. That anyone would steal from such a man is difficult to believe. That a Jew would do it is almost impossible to believe.
One of Madoff"s victims alluded to Dante's Inferno and suggested Satan may be growing a new mouth so he can endlessly bite and chew Madoff in hell. Since Dante believed betrayal to be the greatest of sins, it is easy to believe he would have placed Madoff in Satan's mouth. Madoff should spend the rest of his life praying that God will limit his punishment to a term and not make it eternal.
The only signal is "Don't Get Caught". How many more like him are out there and nothing will be done! Unless, of course, an investigator trips over his di?>.
His body hanging from the neck attached to a street light in front of the Fed would make a much better symbol.
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Check out the Bernie Madoff "Pozi Scheme" music video on YouTube...
For the life of me I can't see the difference between Madoff and Lehman Brothers. The money is gone, gone, gone...
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
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