Bernie and Ruth Are a Fun Couple
Why did Bernie plead guilty without any plea bargaining -- that is, cop to everything and earn life in prison?
Possibly because he's guilty, truly guilty, falling-down full-of-remorse guilty. But this Paul on the road to Damascus bit would seem to be a rather sudden conversion after decades of conducting a methodical scam that must have become second nature -- the sweetest sort of hobby.
Or Bernie Madoff has something else up his sleeve. Could it be he's willing to go to jail for the rest of his life because... he's hidden the dough? And he's confident that if he stays mum nobody will find it? How much would you need to be paid to spend your old age in a cell? $1 billion? Naw.
$10 billion? Hmm. Or, something further off the scales -- one of the world's biggest fortunes? Even though you'll never see a penny of it? But just because you want the fortune -- world's greatest hidden fortune. You can't bear to part with all this money you've obsessively secreted away.
We know Ruth Madoff has $70 million. So maybe this is a story more about love than theft.
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YEAH, why they spent 24/7 together-- they got off talking about the people they were fleecing & laughing their heads off, i bet..
money better than sex,no?
Does he have the Billions hidden away in secret bank accounts, for his wife and offspring to share? If so, this is one thing that the gov't relly needs to keep track of.
I don't believe for an instant that Mr. Madoff feels a shred of remorse. His surrender and guilty plea have been very carefully planned and carried out, just like every other aspect of the scam. Someone needs to be watching all Madoff family members and everyone associated with the "business", because that money went somewhere, and sooner or later, one or more of the co-conspirators will go to get some of it. The likelihood, as others have noted, is that the money has been moved offshore to secret accounts in the tax-dodger havens. The best chance authorities have of locating the money is by pursuing the work already underway to compel the haven countries & corporations to give up the names and account info for US tax cheats. We'll probably find a lot of familiar names on that list.
Then again...
He could be the codified fall guy for Bush, et al, Congress, the SEC, and the owners of the seats of the New York Stock Exchange and others.
It's always been about Bernie. That's what a narcissis does.
The govt agencies that were part of this scam: IRS --- did they receive the info on the capital gains
year after year on 4800+ consumers from his company? Or did they just let the people pay the taxes on the gains ?
the FDIC where he was deposting this volume in the bank ---where was that agency?
the SEC--we all know they should dissolve as they are useless and those folks in charge who let this happen need to pay the salaries back to the victims
Those are just a few agencies that missed it .
Why should we worry about the govt controlling our lives when they cant even meet the job descriptions that they have?
150 years, paid for by the tax payers. Even if he only serve 10% of that we will pay for his upkeep; still spending his final days at home. The people who were taken need to keep watch.
I'm sure he had the cash and connections to run, not exactly sure where he could go, but certainly not anywhere very good. We'll find out later what Israel had to say, my guess was he didn't have enough for safe passage so they said, no.
I suspect he's dying. Which is probably why he decide to stay.
So the question is where's some/more/any of the money?
It would compel the family to hand it over even if the fund are distributed secretly.
In China this man and many CEOs like him would have been executed already.
This should spark more and harder laws on the books for failed influential people in our financial industry. When money makers and CEO's lose and gamble recklessly with a citizens savings there needs to be some very clear laws on the books and fast. Congress is tied into this failure which is why they are dragging their feet on making and passing them
Says more about us then them and begs the real question, why should we, the citizen, even bother to pay down our debts to a system that has no empathy or compassion for the people who toil and is corrupted by those in its charge?
I operate an internet business that accepts credit cards, and every month I pay a fee for the transactions cleared through my credit card processing company.
If I was going to invest in another online business, the first thing I would do is ask to see a record of payments to their online credit card processing company. If they couldn't show any fees paid to process credit card sales, I would immediately know that they didn't have any sales, and that any claims they were making about sales were completely false.
If the firns doing the books and tax accounting work for Mr. Madoff did not see any business related expenses for fees paid to brokerage houses, it should have immediately been obvious that he was not making any trades - and their failure to inquire further about that lack of expense should constitute some level of negligence on their part, or being complicit in hiding the fraud being perpetrated. Either way, the bean-counters should also be on the hook - as well as any others who simply looked the other way and didn't ask the simple question as to how much he was spending on brokerage fees.
Interesting article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/13/bernard-madoff-usa about this entitled "Mystery of Madoff's rapid confession". I'd say the author solved the mystery. But his suggestion that this was perhaps worse than the Enron thing was ludicrous. Many Enron employees honestly lost their retirement, but the Madoff investors did it out of greed - you know, like "if it looks too good to be true it likely is".
I don't understand when you say-----"willing to go to jail"........
He doesn't have an F'n choice!!!!!!!!!!
If he DIDN'T plead guilty he'd get a worse sentence than he's gonna get.
Duh. So where are the federal forfeiture laws? Can the fleeced sue in civil court and strip the family of at least whatever money they stupidly left in the United States--say the penthouse, for starters. And now that Swiss banks are beginning to open their books, I'm willing to bet that money is offshore somewhere, so perhaps it's time to strongarm the Cayman Island banks. For a guy like this, jail time should be only the beginning. His family should not be allowed to use the ill-gotten gains to pay lawyers so they can keep the money. Why there hasn't been a forfeiture lien dropped on every single dime is beyond me.
First of all, I cannot begin to express how badly I feel for those who were ripped off by this low-life criminal. I'm not talking about the Spielbergs or the other fat cats who just wanted to get fatter and richer; I'm talking about the folks that put their life's saving and/or retirement in a fund and then THAT fund manager invested with Bernie "Makin' off with the Money" Madoff, without their knowledge.
But, i question is this... We're talking about 60 to 100 Billion plus dollars... Where exactly has the money gone? Can someone explain WHERE it is? it isn't in cars or house or jewelry, right? Or is it???
Spielberg earned his money, too. And much of what was lost to Spielberg was in his charity.
I'd like to see a pie chart. The fifth billion dollars is widely thought to be overstated because it includes amounts investors though had appreciated over time from their initial investment. There is only a few places the money could have gone.
Plus amount invested by shareholders.
Minus amounts paid to redeeming shareholders (this is likely a very large number, redemptions during the bear market with no new money incoming blew the cover after decades).
Minus money paid to employees.
Minus business expenses.
Minus amounts Madoff spent.
Minus amounts Madoff donated to charity (in his sick mind he wanted to be perceived to be a big man).
Equals amount hidden.
I'm not a lawyer, but does the State have to accept a guilty plea? Isn't it an option, and couldn't the prosecutors insist on going to trial?
The trial doesn't help to expose the hidden details of the crime, that is a result of the investigation. The purpose of the trial is to determine whether the accused is guilty or not based upon the evidence produced by the investigation. If he pleads guilty, the object of the trial (from the standpoint of the People) has been accomplished. To refuse the plea and hold the trial anyway would incur considerable expense in exchange for nothing. He could not be found MORE guilty than his own guilty plea, but he very well could get acquitted on technicalities, which would not be an acceptable outcome.
i surmise that Bernie has the loot in secret Swiss bank accounts and he is protecting it for his family by going to jail without spilling the beans. He probably knows he can not escape and weasel his way out of jail time but is anticipating a country club jailhouse where his wife and family will provide him with a comfortable living while he is there for the rest of his life And I suspect it also has alot to do with ego and greed - he got it almost singlehanded and that's a "measure of his success and worth" in his own mind of his life that he was able to amass such a vast fortune beyond anyone's wildest imagination. He will go down in the Guiness Book of World Records as history's greatest thief. He may secretly be smiling and happy for his "achievement."
History's greatest thief never got caught and remains anonymous.
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