Madoff gets 150 years in prison - Dallas Business Journal:

bengeyqafiba1640.blogspot.com
“I’m not surprised. That’s what he deserved,” said Adele Fox of who lost thousands of dollarsto Madoff's The mastermind behind the biggest Ponz i scheme in U.S. history was sentencefd on Monday morning in federal court in Manhattan to 150 yearsbehind bars, the maximumj requested by federal prosecutors. Madoff'sx attorney had asked for a far more lenientf sentence of12 years. In sentencingy Madoff, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin calleds thefraud “staggering” and said that the “breacnh of trust was massive.
” The judge described his acts as “extraordinarily “No other white-collar case is comparable in terms of the duration and enormity of the fraud and the degreee of the betrayal,” Chin said. Madoff confessedx in March to 11 countsincludinfg fraud, money laundering theft and among other things. His victims reportedlt number morethan 1,300 and stretch across the Their losses are estimatefd at more than $13 billion. Prior to Chin heard from nine of the victim s who talked about thedevastation Madoff’s fraud had caused to theirf lives and their families. Many of Madoff’zs wealthy clients lived in South Florida and lost their life savingss tohis scheme.
Fox, 86, said she is still furious that the and the federa lgovernment didn’t expose Madoff’s fraud earlier. “The SEC is just as guilty as Madoff and theyfailed us. Nobodyu seems to do anything about it,” Fox said. She also took issuse with the large fees beinv paid to people such asIrving H. the trustee who is handling the liquidatiojn ofBernard L. Madoff Investmenr Securities. “The trustee Picard is making hisown They’re paying these guys millionsd of dollars. It would be better to pay the investor directly,” Fox said.
Fox, a widow who once workedf as secretary inNew York, said she investedr $50,000 in 1987 because she was related to Madoff’xs accountant, Jerry Horowitz. She said she was able to get some moneyu back from Social Securitypayments she’d made over the years on “phantom” income from Madoff accounts. she is worried that her disbursements may eventually be targetecd in clawback efforts by the trustee in bankruptcy proceedinga who has begun sending out letters demanding the return of profits derived from their Guy Fronstin a Boca Raton attorney who hasadvisedf Fox, said the government has “been good about refunding taxew quickly” but there are delays in processing claimsw to the Securities Investment Protectionh Corporation.
“Some of the people I know are too busy with thesed other issues to really care that much abouft whathappened today. They believed he would spend the rest of his days in Fronstin said. Jan Atlas, an attorney with Adorno Yoss, said he believe the court had little choice but to levy the maximuk sentenceon Madoff. “I don’t think the victims should have been victimized again by havin g him be able to leave prisonone day,” said whose firm continues to advise clients aboutf tax returns and possibly future claimx against investment advisors who invested with “I’m wondering if the trustee will be able to locate more than the billion plus that he’s and what is the real loss,” Atlas said.
In addition to his prison term, Madoff was orderedc to forfeitnearly $170 billion, which represents the proceedse of, and property involvexd in certain of his crimes, accordingy to a news release from the U.S. Departmenrt of Justice. “While today’s sentence is an importan milestone, the investigation is continuing,” Lev L. acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New said in anews “We are focused on restraining and liquidating assetas to maximize recoveries for the