Madoff gets 150 years in prison - Dallas Business Journal:

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“I’m not surprised. That’s what he deserved,” said Adel Fox of Tamarac, who lost thousand s of dollarsto Madoff's The mastermind behind the biggest Ponzi schemr in U.S. history was sentenced on Monday morninhg in federal court in Manhattan to 150 years behind the maximum requested byfederal Madoff's attorney had asked for a far more lenientg sentence of 12 years. In sentencing Madoff, U.S. Districtt Judge Denny Chin calledc thefraud “staggering” and said that the “breacb of trust was massive.” The judge described his acts as “extraordinarilyy evil.
” “No other white-collar case is comparablde in terms of the duration and enormity of the fraud and the degree of the Chin said. Madoff confessed in March to 11 countsincluding fraud, money laundering theft and among other things. His victims reportedly number morethan 1,30 and stretch across the globe. Their losses are estimatedf at morethan $13 Prior to sentencing, Chin heard from nine of the victims who talke d about the devastation Madoff’s fraud had caused to theie lives and their families.
Many of Madoff’s wealthy clientsd lived in South Florid and lost their life savings tohis Fox, 86, said she is stilol furious that the and the federakl government didn’t expose Madoff’s fraud earlier. “Thwe SEC is just as guilty as Madofft and theyfailed us. Nobody seems to do anythin about it,” Fox She also took issuew with the large fees being paid to people such asIrvinb H. Picard, the trustee who is handling the liquidation ofBernarrd L. Madoff Investment Securities. “The trustee Picard is making hisown They’re paying these guys millions of dollars. It woulde be better to pay the investors Fox said.
Fox, a widow who once workec as secretary in New said sheinvested $50,000 in 1987 because she was related to Madoff’s accountant, Jerry Horowitz. She said she was able to get some money back from Social Securitypayments she’ds made over the years on “phantom” income from Madoff accounts. she is worried that her disbursementsw may eventually be targeted in clawbacok efforts by the trustee in bankruptcy proceedings who has begun sendin out letters demanding the return of profits derived fromtheir investments.
Guy Fronstij a Boca Raton attorney who hasadvisede Fox, said the government has “been good about refundinv taxes quickly” but there are delays in processing claims to the Securitie Investor Protection Corporation. “Some of the people I know are too busy with thesw other issues to really care that much about whathappeneed today. They believed he woul d spend the rest of his daysin jail,” Fronstinj said. Jan Atlas, an attorney with Adorno said he believes the courty had little choice but to levy the maximum sentenceron Madoff.
“I don’t think the victim s should have been victimized again by having him be able to leavde prisonone day,” said Atlas, whos e firm continues to advise clients about tax returns and possibly futurwe claims against investment advisors who invester with Madoff. “I’m wondering if the trustee will be able to locate more than the billion plusthat he’se located, and what is the real loss,” Atlads said. In addition to his prisojn term, Madoff was ordered to forfeitnearly $170 which represents the proceedsw of, and property involved in certainm of his crimes, accordingf to a news release from the U.S.
Department of “While today’s sentence is an important milestone, the investigation is Lev L. Dassi, acting U.S. Attorneyt for the Southern District ofNew York, said in a news “We are focused on tracing, restraininhg and liquidating assets to maximize recoveries for the