Ponzi victims left penniless
JUDGE Denny Chin yesterday said that Bernard Madoff deserved the maximum sentence, typically handed down to organized crime bosses, saying that the fraud was “staggering”.
Investigators will not know for some time where all the billions went, or how much was actually stolen, though they believe that some cash may be hidden in offshore tax havens.
“I only hope that his prison sentence is long enough so that his jail cell will become his coffin,” said Michael Schwartz, who said his family had been robbed of savings to be used to care for his mentally disabled brother.
“He discarded me like road kill,” added investor Miriam Siegman.
Madoff was arrested in December after his sons told authorities he had confessed his massive scam to them.
He admitted running a multibillion-dollar “Ponzi scheme” in which investors were paid returns from money paid by later investors rather than from real profits.
Madoff has said he committed the fraud on his own.
His wife Ruth has not been charged with any crimes, but has been vilified by defrauded investors and shunned by people she once knew well.
She said: “From the moment I learned from my husband that he had committed an enormous fraud, I have had two thoughts.”
She added: “First, that so many people who trusted him would be ruined financially and emotionally, and second, that my life with the man I have known for over 50 years was over.”
UK-BASED INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS
Company Exposure
HSBC £1bn
RBS £492m
Man Group £360m
Bramdean Alternatives £31.2m
RAB Capital £10m
VICTIMS
1,340
FRAUD
$65BN
SENTENCE
150yrs