You must be kidding me!!! The punishment doesn't fit the crime. He destroyed thousands of peoples lives. He lived a lavish life, vacations all over the world, a yacht, mansion in palm beach, one in the hamptons, etc,etc. He will be dead in less than 2 years, watch and see. Meanwhile the rest off us break our ass's everyday of our lives to make ends meet. Hell, I did harder time then he is seeing when I served 4 years of my life in the military. He gets basically 2 maybe 3 years behind bars at a plush correctional facility , being catered to again on the taxpayers shoulders. Really makes you think of being a career criminal rather then live an honest life. He should be made to suffer, his family and the upper tier of his company knew what was going on and did nothing, they all should be tortured till their last breath of air expells from their lungs!!!!!!!

He may be,but the congress,president,geithner,bernake,summers,clinto,greenspan,paulson,ceo's are not.The constitution calls for death,manipulation of the currency,may the sentance be carried out.

You're perfectly right, Sonja: in the U.S., you can become an accountant and graduate from the so-called "best schools" with a LOW IQ (110 and under). All it takes is a little bit of work and a good memory. However, once they get hired - above others, needless to say - they are incompetent because after all, it's math and intelligence is required to do a better than average job! I get paid to fix financial gaffes created by accountants! LOL I have a B.A. in Math and Physics but learned finance ON MY OWN! (But am a Mensa member with 152 IQ on the Stanford Binet II...) WHEN ARE EMPLOYERS GOING TO REALIZE THAT A NICE DIPLOMA MEANS S**T, IT'S THE IQ THAT MATTERS! I guess after they get screwed over and over... ^_^ My clients got the message. Last week, yet another one hired me after his accountant failed to notice that an employee was using his credit card for his own car rentals instead of the company's. I found it out in 10 minutes and a phonecall when I offered said client to look at his company's finances for free to see if I could improve his business. Sad...

How about all the non-government Wall Street smarties who also missed it? Don't be so condemning until you have walked in the Feds shoes a while. Madoff had a lot of high powered backers and reputation that would make it quite difficult for a Federal inspector to try to bring him down. Not saying that they shouldn't have caught him, just saying it isn't an indication that the government always screws things up. There were plenty of people on Wall Street who lost money because they didn't do their due diligence. Bill

what the hell happened to Chris Cox the head of SEc at the time this was going on?

Let's not forget that Madoff thievery happened under GW Bush and his hand picked cronies. The head of SEC was a young Republican congressman,with no experience in this field, kinda like Brownie, Bush's selection for Homeland Security, who let New Orleans drown.

Sonja, Amy, and Koolwoman: You need to get your facts straight. Every business hires recent graduates; then they are trained and supervised by experienced supervisors. The problems with the SEC have nothing to do with the universities they graduated from. In fact, nearly all of Enron's people came from Ivy League schools. With regard to Chris Cox and GWB, the Madoff scandal was going on for 30+ years. Not that they did any better than their predecessors, but this can't be laid at the feet of the people in office at the time it was discovered.

If you want to know more about the Madoff scandal, you can go to my website: http://accountingethics.blogspot.com/.

Sonja it is easy to blame the young employees, but did wall street not owe a duty to the public as a major buisness to observe that Madoff was not trading yet publicly doing buisness as a wall street trader and collecting cash for the buisness.

What happens to wall streets responsibility to protect itself and the public from misrepresentation. One must bear in mind that this was a very collective and institutional crime. Madoff is just a good soldier.

This is a studdied fraud, part of a larger plan the destroy the United States as a super power. What they did not expect is that the leadership would suspend the capitalist arthodoxy and borrow that much money to maintain the system. They did not expect us to tout too big to fail. Now they are talking deficit like its a problem not withstanding the circumstances.

I fully agree! Today, a degree means nothing more that a person knows how to go off and spend four years partying with their buddies.

I fuly agree! Today, a degree means nothing more than having proof that you can spend four years drinking with your buddies. When I hire someone, I often consider their degree as a lower criteria element to landing the job than their common sense and attitude toward life and people in general. Honestly, they can wear a tux or formal to the interview, show up promptly and have all the pre-fab answers. They KNOW that those basic things in the forefront and will see to those items; however, among other things, I often try to catch at least a glimpse of their car. Filthy windows on their car is a definite ding on their brain. I mean, if they don't care to have clear vision when doing something as simple as driving, how can I expect them to have clear vision when handling a complex part of my company?

Chip Your comments are right on the money. This man is one sick person and he doesnt know right from wrong. He ruined many institutions also. I would hope that the government goes after his family in a big way. His sons worked for him for many years. Unless they are completel morons they had to be involved. This family has no shame.
Bob Steinhardt

Yup! You're absolutely right. So now the real culprit is the SEC because they didn't catch his fraud - NOT!. Well slap their hands too. Some heads should roll on that one but Madoff did this to his investors and himself. He really didn't think that much about his grandkids and how far down the Madoff line this is going to affect did he?

You are right, apparently delusions of grandeur run deep and are lasting; he's even more sick and disgusting evidenced by the fact that he has seemingly not been humbled at all by spending his life behind bars. He clearly has no conscience, no sense of reality ie: right vs. wrong, he's almost inhuman, how do you take ANYTHING from someone else that doesn't belong to you and...take money from charities?? He's beyond sick and beyond redemption.. He deserves to rot in hell..My heart goes out to his victims.

Whats wrong with trailers? I live in one!