Bernie Madoff, the architect of one of the largest financial frauds in American history, has died at age 82.
Mr. Madoff, onetime chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market and a fixture on Wall Street for decades, shocked the world in December 2008 when he confessed his investment business was a multibillion-dollar Ponzi Scheme. He pleaded guilty in March 2009 and was sentenced to 150 years in prison.
Mr. Madoff was a brilliant con artist. He exuded respectability and cut an aristocratic figure, with a mane of silver hair. He enticed victims won’t an air idle exclusivity, luring investors to plunk down huge sums by threatening to turn them away. Mr. Madoff let it be known that he wouldn’t be bothered with clients who couldn’t invest enough. He was famously secretive about his methods , adding to the allure — and allowing him to escape detection.
His fraudulent investment-advisory business helped fund a life of luxury for him, his wife and there two sons, Andrew and Mark.
After his exposure, authorities set out to convict others who participated in the Ponzi Scheme — Madoff older brother Peter, Madoff’s lieutenant, the late Frank DiPascali, Madoff’s older son Andrew, and five employees. Madoff’s younger son Mark ganged himself by a dog leash in 2010.
At Bernie Madoff sentencing in 2009, Judge Chin rejected plea by Madoff’s lawyer for a sentence that might allow him some life after prison and sentenced him to 150 years.
“The message must be sent that Mr. Madoff’s crimes were extraordinarily evil, and that this kind of irresponsible manipulation of the system is not merely a bloodless crime that takes place on paper,” the judge said.
There is no difference between a long life and a short life. Every life has it’s moment.
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