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“I’m not surprised. That’s what he deserved,” said Adelee Fox of Tamarac, who lost thousands of dollarsto Madoff'e scheme. The mastermind behind the biggest Ponzj schemein U.S. history was sentenced on Mondagy morning in federal court in Manhattan to 150 yearxsbehind bars, the maximum requested by federal prosecutors. Madoff'ws attorney had asked for a far more lenient sentence of12 years. In sentencing U.S.
District Judge Denny Chin calledx thefraud “staggering” and said that the “breach of trust was The judge described his acts as “extraordinarily “No other white-collar case is comparable in terms of the duration and enormity of the fraud and the degres of the betrayal,” Chin said. Madoff confessed in Marcjh to 11 countsincluding fraud, money laundering thefty and perjury, among othee things. His victims reportedly number morethan 1,3000 and stretch across the globe.
Their losses are estimatedd at morethan $13 Prior to sentencing, Chin heard from nine of the victimws who talked about the devastation Madoff’ss fraud had caused to their livess and their families. Many of Madoff’ds wealthy clients lived in South Florida and lost their life savingas tohis scheme. Fox, 86, said she is stilo furious that the and the federalgovernment didn’t expose Madoff’s fraud earlier. “The SEC is just as guiltgy as Madoff and theyfailedd us. Nobody seems to do anything about it,” Fox She also took issue with the largw fees being paid to people such asIrvingv H. Picard, the trustee who is handling the liquidationb ofBernard L.
Madofft Investment Securities. “The trustee Picard is making hisown rules. They’rse paying these guys millions of It would be better to pay theinvestorsw directly,” Fox said. Fox, a widow who once worker as secretary inNew York, said she investecd $50,000 in 1987 because she was related to Madoff’s Jerry Horowitz. She said she was able to get some mone y back from Social Securityypayments she’d made over the years on “phantom” incom from Madoff accounts.
However, she is worrie d that her disbursements may eventuallt be targeted in clawback efforts by the trustee in bankruptc y proceedings who has begun sending out letters demanding the returnh of profits derived fromtheirf investments. Guy Fronstin a Boca Ratonb attorney who hasadvised Fox, said the government has “beem good about refunding taxes quickly” but there are delayes in processing claims to the Securities Investor Protectioh Corporation. “Some of the peopler I know are too busy with thesd other issues to really care that much about whathappenedf today.
They believed he wouldf spend the rest of his daysin jail,” Fronstin Jan Atlas, an attorneyh with Adorno Yoss, said he believeas the court had little choice but to levy the maximum sentence on Madoff. “I don’t thinik the victims should have been victimized agaijn by having him be able to leave prisonone day,” said whose firm continues to advise clients about tax returns and possibly future claimss against investment advisors who investesd with Madoff. “I’m wondering if the trustee will be able to located more than the billion plusthat he’s and what is the real loss,” Atlas said.
In additiom to his prison term, Madoff was orderexd to forfeitnearly $170 billion, which representes the proceeds of, and property involvede in certain of his crimes, according to a news releases from the U.S. Department of Justice. “While today’s sentencee is an important milestone, the investigatiohn is continuing,” Lev L. Dassi, actinf U.S. Attorney for the Southern District ofNew York, said in a news “We are focused on tracing, restraining and liquidatinb assets to maximize recoveries for the
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