Pity Party

Madoff: I Was ‘Human Pinata’

As judge explains 150-year sentence.

Bernard Madoff has spoken up from prison, again, to attack the judge who sentenced him to 150 years. He tells the New York Times the judge, Albert Chin, made him; “the human piñata of Wall Street.” “In my mind, Chin was anything but fair, with zero understanding of the industry,” Madoff says, who adds financial firms and government regulators “caused the recession, not me.” He also notes, “There’s a big difference with dying in prison, you know, and dying outside with your family.” Chin tells The New York Times that he considered giving Madoff, 73, a sentence that would have allowed him to walk free before he died. “In the end, I just thought he didn’t deserve it,” Chin explains. “The benefits of giving him hope were far outweighed by all of the other considerations.”