Let me clarify. There were early investors who received monies beyond their initial investments. The government then tried to get back those illusionary profits which had been paid out to early investors. Some had already spend the money and had to declare bankruptcy to pay the government.
Trump should have commuted his sentence and made him Treasury Secretary...tell him to "cook the books" and make the US debt disappear
Some of those might be true. It changes nothing about the facts what Madoff has done to his investors. The sentence to remain behind bars is more than fair and will probably assure he won't leave prison before he dies.
The scam went on for decades. The SEC, with its usual incompetence, acted after the horse left the barn. 8 employees were mildly punished. no one was fired. Had it acted earlier billions in losses would never have happened.
Since the fraud went on for decades and he had many multiple chances to come clean this can not be treated as just a theft. He has to be treated like a habitual offender and sentenced according to those guidelines. Worse are people who stole pennies and got caught three or more times then hit with the habitual offender law and have had to do 20 plus years, those poor souls should really have their sentences thrown out.
1. There were actually no losses (because of lack of trading), just capital redistribution. That is why they were able to recover most of it. 2. So if a serial killer keeps killing that is the police's fault. Got it. 3. Days before he gave himself up he still distributed stolen money among the people who he loved or in the know. That was just pure malicouosness. He had at least 2 decades in the spotlight and wealth, I think he got way more out of life than most people.
you have a funny interpretation of right and wrong and who the perpetrators are. Madoff cheated and lied and ran a Ponzi scheme, NOT the SEC. I think you should get your facts straight. "While no one will ever collect the phantom profits Madoff pretended he was earning, the cash deposits by his clients have been the primary objective for Irving Picard, a New York lawyer overseeing liquidation of Madoff’s firm in bankruptcy court. So far he’s recovered $13.3 billion—about 70 percent of approved claims—by suing those who profited from the scheme, knowingly or not. And Picard has billions more in his sights." (source: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-recovering-madoff-money/) -> The only reason investors are gonna recoup most of their investments is that the liquidation lawyer is applying some highly unusual and questionable tactic by suing investors who unknowingly profited from the Ponzi scheme. I am actually quite sure that the last word is not yet spoken and that there might well be counter suits alleging that such approach is illegal. But regarding Madoff, this man is as dirty and corrupt as can possibly be. But hey, does not matter what you or I think. He will die in prison. I hope he actually lives a lot longer to reflect on his life and how he fucked up everything he has touched.