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Madoff's Wife Walks Away a Millionaire
Thanatos
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So, Bernie Madoff's wife is walking away with 2.5 million dollars. His kids are thus far totally untouched by either civil suits or criminal prosecution, in spite of the fact that they both worked for the fucking company. The article goes on to talk about how much she's suffered, being ostracized from many of her social circles, and villified by the media; it's funny how that happens when you benefit from a multi-billion dollar ponzi scheme, which murdered several people. My heart really fucking goes out to this selfish fucking cunt.[url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124612092335264949.html]Madoff's Wife Cedes Asset Claim[/url] wrote:Ruth Madoff, the wife of one of the most reviled swindlers in history, has agreed to give up her potential claim to more than $80 million worth of assets, keeping just $2.5 million in cash in an agreement reached with federal prosecutors.
The settlement with the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan was approved late Friday by U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin, who is scheduled to sentence her husband, Bernard Madoff, on Monday in a final courtroom stand that will seal his legacy as one of the world's most successful thieves.
Mrs. Madoff won't attend her husband's sentencing in federal court in Manhattan but may provide a statement upon its completion, her lawyer, Peter Chavkin, said Saturday.
The settlement involving Mrs. Madoff was finalized alongside a court order of forfeiture against Mr. Madoff in the amount of $170 billion, which represents the amount of money that prosecutors say flowed into his investment firm.
However, that massive amount is largely symbolic and simply an indication that prosecutors can tap any assets of Mr. Madoff's they can find. Much of that money went back out to investors in the form of withdrawals but also funded the Madoff family's lavish lifestyle and that of some associates.
The agreements set the stage for Mr. Madoff's appearance before Judge Chin on Monday. Prosecutors on Friday asked the judge to give Mr. Madoff the statutory maximum of 150 years in prison, or at least a term that would effectively be a life sentence. His attorney has asked for far less -- as few as 12 years. Lawyers expect him to receive 25 to 35 years.
Though the 71-year-old Mr. Madoff confessed to the fraud more than six months ago, only his outside auditor also has been criminally charged in the decades-long and elaborate scheme.
Mr. Madoff has offered little cooperation to investigators, in some cases providing what they believe is misleading information, for example concerning matters such as when the fraud started and whether others were involved, they say. His lawyer, Ira Sorkin, declined to comment.
Yet, Friday's actions show that prosecutors have at least forged agreements to grab assets.
The judgment divests Mr. Madoff from millions of dollars worth of real estate and other property. The settlement doesn't prevent the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Madoff trustee from pursuing Mrs. Madoff's funds in the future.
Nonetheless, the settlement will help Mrs. Madoff, 68 years old, move on from what has been a tumultuous period since the multibillion-dollar fraud emerged on Dec. 11 of last year. She has been vilified in the tabloids, fended off photographers camped outside her Manhattan apartment building, and shunned by same communities in New York that once embraced her. She has also been under a voluntary asset freeze since December.
According to court documents released on Friday, Mrs. Madoff consented to the sale of her properties in Palm Beach, Fla., Montauk and Manhattan, as well as boats and vehicles, in order to preserve value for victims. Earlier this year Mr. Madoff asked prosecutors to allow his wife to keep about $70 million in assets held in her name, which he argued weren't connected to his fraud.
Mr. Chavkin said she "unequivocally did not know of the misconduct and did not participate in it."
That's clearly not the case with Mr. Madoff, who pleaded guilty to the multibillion fraud without a trial. Throughout the investigation and subsequent guilty plea, he maintained a chilly self-control and obsession with detail and loyalty -- to try to manage his epic downfall.
If family members who worked at the firm helped him carry out or conceal his fraud, his posture since the arrest has made life more difficult for prosecutors scrutinizing them, lawyers uninvolved in the criminal case surmise.
Their defense would be "Bernie lied to us, too," says David Siegal, a former federal prosecutor who is now a defense lawyer in New York. "If the government had direct testimony to the contrary from an insider who was central to the fraud scheme, it's likely we would have seen charges by now."
Mr. Siegal cautioned, however, that taking more than six months to build a white-collar criminal prosecution "wouldn't be unusual." Indeed, while there have been several people charged in another recent alleged Ponzi scheme, regarding Stanford Financial Group, federal authorities have been investigating operations there since at least June 2008. (Please see related article on the Stanford affair, below.)
A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan, pursuing the case against Mr. Madoff, declined to comment.
After his arrest on Dec. 11, Mr. Madoff met with authorities several times but offered little other than a basic account of how he orchestrated the fraud, according to people familiar with the matter.
Late Friday, prosecutors told Judge Chin that the trustee of the defunct Madoff firm who is attempting to recover assets for victims has indicated that "Mr. Madoff has not provided meaningful cooperation or assistance."
Mr. Madoff has specifically tried to protect his family, saying at his March plea that his brother and sons worked for the legitimate side of the business. Though his family remains under scrutiny, no charges have been brought against his wife, who at one point checked bank statements received by the firm; Peter Madoff, the firm's compliance chief; and Mr. Madoff's sons, Andrew and Mark, who worked in the trading operation of the firm.
A lawyer for Peter Madoff didn't respond to requests for comment. An attorney for Mr. Madoff's sons said they had no knowledge of the fraud and "continue to cooperate fully with the authorities in their ongoing investigations."
In his only public statement to date, his stone-faced guilty plea, Mr. Madoff said he started the fraud less than 20 years ago -- a claim that investigators challenge.
"When I began the Ponzi scheme, I believed it would end shortly and I would be able to extricate myself and my clients from the scheme," he said. But "as the years went by I realized that my arrest and this day would inevitably come."
Mr. Madoff was able to keep the scheme going because of a stunning attention to detail, in particular the system he created to entice large amounts of cash while keeping withdrawals to a minimum.
Mr. Madoff, having betrayed some of his closest friends, remains alone. His sons haven't spoken with him since Dec. 10, when Mr. Madoff told them of the fraud, according to their spokesman. They also haven't visited or talked with Mrs. Madoff, their mother, in recent months. Mrs. Madoff has visited her husband about once a week, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The Bureau of Prisons, an agency that oversees more than 200,000 federal inmates, will determine where Mr. Madoff serves time. That determination is based on several factors, including the length of the sentence, an inmate's prior record and recommendations by the judge. The bureau says it attempts to place inmates within 500 miles of their prior residence.
Because he is almost certain to receive a sentence higher than 10 years, Mr. Madoff won't qualify for a "minimum" security facility, which has a relatively low staff-to-inmate ratio and limited or no perimeter fencing, according to the bureau.
That means he could end up in one of the low- or medium-security prisons near New York City, such as Fort Dix, N.J., Otisville, N.Y., or Allenwood, Pa.
In contrast to his trademark custom suits, $300 cashmere-blend pants and jewelry, Mr. Madoff now wears a jail-issued khaki uniform with his prisoner number.
Mr. Madoff, however, won't have to wear jail garb for his sentencing. The judge has granted him permission to receive his own clothing, meaning that when he stands before the crowds and cameras, Mr. Madoff can wear his suit of choice.
—Chris Herring, Robert Copeland and Jennifer Forsyth contributed to this article.
And it looks like Madoff may get off with as few as 12 years, which, after good behavior and time served, could be as few as five or six years. Would it surprise me if this happened for a multiple-murderer? Well, no, not at all, as long as you're a white-collar murderer; don't pull any blue-collar murder in this country, or you'll get fucked up, as if somehow blue-collar crime is more harmful to people (when, in fact, the opposite is true).
How much more are we going to fucking put up with before we start making it so white-collar criminals are getting the kinds of sentences that act as actual deterrents? I have a plan: we move the non-violent blue-collar criminals into their Club Feds, while we move the white-collar criminals into super-max facilities, with all the murderers and rapists, where they belong. Maybe that would act as an effective deterrent.
Thanatos on
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B: If he actually gets out he'll probably be shot.
Rich family in the UK are arrested with enough cocaine to keep Columbia in business.
They are so rich the judge deems the quantity as personal use because they are so rich they can afford to buy this much cocaine and have it lying about. Light fine.
Rich people never actually pay.
This is probably the best outcome that could be reasonably expected.
but they're listening to every word I say
I'd like to see sentencing guidelines practically reversed, to be honest. Violent Crimes are almost universally performed out of a sense of desperation or they're a crime of passion. Mugging somebody in order to afford a loaf of bread, which is more difficult to steal, that sort of thing. White Collar crimes are universally premeditated and acted with cold blooded efficiency so as to bilk as many people as possible, and generally performed without any remorse after the fact, ruining far more lives than even the worst robbery gone wrong. I mean, look at any footage of Madoff. He's literally smiling from the infamy of getting caught. Frontline had a docu on it and the FBI agents he confessed to said he didn't exhibit any sort of shame over what he had done. If anything there was pride. And his actions killed a man.
If I'm not mistaken, Mrs. Madoff came from a well to do family, and as such brought some considerable assets into the marriage. The $2.5M figure is most likely based on those assets. Just because she married a lying scumbag fuck doesn't make her guilty of said fuck's conduct. And the real bullshit - the attempt to shield half of Madoff's illegal gains using her - was countered and stopped. If you want to put Mrs Madoff into penury, then you build a case against her proving that she was conspiring with her husband to commit his crimes.
I can understand that you feel that the Madoffs to a man should be made to suffer - but that would be opening a legal Pandora's Box that trust me, you don't want opened.
So, you think you can be able to prove that to a jury?
I'd actually be surprised if this is a Jury trial given the nigh impossibility of finding someone who isn't prejudiced.
Maybe if they're all inuits from Alaska who don't get satellite TV.
Congratulations, you've discovered one of the big reasons why this clusterfuck happened in the first place. Yes, had the SEC done its job, Madoff and his jerkoff offspring would have been long in jail. The fact is, though, that the SEC royally screwed the pooch on this one, and because of that, people who are guilty are going to get off scott free.
Yes, it royally fucking sucks. But the alternative is a whole lot worse. And I would expect that you of all people would understand that.
(facepalm)
The SEC shit, Than...that's in the past. Over and done with. Bitching about it is like crying over spilled milk. Would it have been nice to have had an SEC that did its fucking job? Sure. I would love that as well. But the fact is, we didn't. And that's what's fucked this shit up royally. It sucks balls, but at this point, we can't do anything about it. All we can do is make sure it doesn't happen again.
Now, given how royally the SEC screwed the pooch, we don't have enough of a case to really nail anyone beyond Madoff himself. Yes, this also fucking sucks. But the alternative is to resort to collective punishment, declaring these individuals guilty because they worked for Madoff. That's a really fucking dangerous road to go down, and you know that.
How is it collective punishment for an estate's assets to be kept together and considered as one?
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
Over the years the SEC also seems to have disregarded claims from Harry Markopolos about the Madoffs fraudulent business, preferring to sit on their hands instead of running the numbers.
I suppose, I'm just not convinced that she really does have that many assets personally in her name that he had no access to without going through her. The OP says she was looking for ~$70m in the form of real estate &c. If that really wasn't hers to claim, I'm curious as to whether the $2.5m really is either.
Of course its all kind of moot since she wasn't the architect behind it and so probably shouldn't be treated nearly as harshly. The fact that Bernie isn't going to be treated all that harshly is the bigger concern. He'd be getting more time (considering what's likely coming down the pike) for getting caught selling marijuana. That is quite simply wrong. White Collar Crime should be considered the most heinous only behind things like rape and first degree murder. I'd say its far worse than murder in the second degree.
You have to realize that the Republicans neutered the SEC over the past 8 years with the glee of a garden shears-wielding Bob Barker. They intentionally placed at the head of the SEC industry insiders who were not going to look too closely at the industry they were ostensibly supposed to be regulating (much like they did for many other federal regulatory bodies, but that's a whole thread in of itself,) they made sure that the SEC was underfunded, making it impossible for it to properly regulate the securities industry, and they tied it up in enough red tape to choke a pack of pachyderms.
The result of that is Madoff. Plain and simple.
...the result of 8 years of gutting a regulatory agency is the creation of a 40 year old Ponzi scheme? Are you sure they stripped the SEC of its budget rather than just obligating the funds to building that time machine?
You did read that Madoff only submitted to SEC regulation for his investment firm in 2006, right? Part of the confusion is that he was running two businesses - a (mostly) by the books stock operation that got him in tight with the reguatory bodies, and a hedge fund that was really a Ponzi scheme. He managed to structure things so looked low-risk also, allowing his scam to fly under the radar. But as soon as he registered with the SEC, he should have tripped alarms off all over the place.
As soon as the two front men for his ponzi scheme got busted for not being registered, even though they had more than 15 investors getting their advice, and everybody went over to Bernie who also wasn't registered they should have seen some alarm bells. You are not allowed to be an IA and have 3,200 clients without registering with the SEC. They oversaw that happening decades ago and didn't do a damn thing. Hell, they were relieved because it somehow proved that it wasn't really a Ponzi scheme since the handful of people who withdrew their cash were in the vast minority while everyone else just shifted the paper money back to where it was.
LINK
http://money.cnn.com/2009/06/29/news/economy/madoff_prison_sentence/index.htm?postversion=2009062909
Anyone want to place bets on how long it takes for him to get totally ripped and covered in tattoos?
Yeah that's crazy. Why do we even have sentences that long, anyway? Why not just say that anything over 100 years is "life" and leave it at that?
He deserves every day of 150 years in prison. He stole more money then every friend and family member I know combined will have made in their lifetimes...when numbers get into the billions it's just hard to even picture the damage.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
The Clinton Adm. may have done some deregulating, but they sure as hell didn't have the attitude of the Bush Administration, which was "put evil people in charge of what regulation we do have, then tell everyone 'you don't actually have to do your jobs.'"
a life sentence isn't really a life sentence
life without parole is limited to violent capital offenses.
The 150 year sentence is worse than a "life" sentence because even with reductions for good behavior or possible parole he'll be in there until he dies.