Madoff Gets 150 Years

Convicted swindler Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in jail yesterday – the maximum sentence allowable for each of the 11 federal counts that he pleaded guilty to back in March.

Calling Madoff’s crimes “extraordinary evil,” Judge Denny Chin said he wanted his sentence to send a message.

Among those crimes? Securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, perjury and making false filings with the SEC. As there is no parole in the federal system, Madoff will remain behind bars for the rest of his life – answering the wish of many of those he defrauded who stated that he should “rot” in jail.

All told, Madoff’s Ponzi scheme took investors for a whopping $65 billion – a figure that would have been higher had the bottom not dropped out of the U.S. economy in late 2008, thus drying up his stream of new investors.

Madoff’s scheme was exposed in December of 2008 by his two sons.

“I have left a legacy of shame, as some of my victims have pointed out, to my family and my grandchildren,” Madoff said at his sentencing hearing. “This is something I will live in for the rest of my life. I’m sorry.”