Madoff is the biggest winner.

He lived a good life for 40 years.

And now in jail, we are paying for his

room, food, toilet, bathroom tissues, hot shower, heating bill, medical bills, TV, and internet ?

Some of us cannot afford the heating bills, and medical bills.

Madoff is the biggest winner.

What China would have done, is executed him.

Going to jail will waste taxpayer and government money.

His accomplices should be killed too.

Wife, children, employees, all should be dead.

Why do I have to pay for their great home in jail??

From the confession he read in court today: "It is my belief that the salaries and bonuses of the personnel involved in the operation of the legitimate side of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities were funded by the operations of the firm's successful proprietary trading and market making businesses."

Of course this man didn't run this scheme all by his lonesome! His brother and two sons are part of the "legitimate side" of the business. They're all multi-millionaires. Also, don't forget wifey's $15M withdrawal before Bernie turned himself in. All the money being moved here is tainted.

This post actually gives a verbatim account of Madoff's first and only confession: http://www.nypost.com/seven/03122009/news/regionalnews/madoffs_statement_at_hearing_159236.htm

Fascinating read. Clearly, this is to protect others involved in this scheme such as his 2 sons and his brother which he claims where only involved in the legitimate part of his business. So this entire guilty plea is a strategy based around protecting them, in my opinion...

didn't this movie come out last week?

I am uninterested in Madoff. I would like to know about the SEC, which let him get away with his games for so long even after they were explicitly warned about him.

i'm not sure why regular folk - i.e. people who never would have been able to get into his ponzi pool in the first place - care so much about a greedy man taking advantage of greedy people. i can get the ethical, social, financial discussions about his long-running scam...but being so angry?

if someone walks up to you on the street and says "i have a briefcase filled with 10,000 dollars. it is yours. take it" - would you take the briefcase?

if your answer is yes, well, how do you legislate against such willful stupidity?

it may be tragic, or it may be comical, but worthy of such rage? you cannot legislate against stupidity and wishful thinking. there's no government bureaucracy that can prevent idiocy from overwhelming common sense, and that's even given the rather noble presumption that government isn't the manifestation of idiocy in mob form.

There where alot of sophisticated investors involved in this case and with the credibility that Maddoff had (ex chairman of Nasdaq) it was unimaginable to some that he would be running a pre-meditated ponzi scheme. He was also good at playing hard to get by turning down people who really, really wanted to invest with him, so he created the feeling of an exclusive club.

I think the reason that this case is so sensational is 1- the size of the scheme, and 2- the fact that such a high ranking and credible member of society would premeditate a criminal scheme like this. I know alot of "credible" individuals have done some fucked up shit in the past years, but they almost always start off with good intentions and end up degenerating to keep up wiht the jones. This guy, Madoff, is a pure sociopath who just enjoyed pulling the strings....

It's not so black and white. Many of the investors did not directly invest with Madoff. As was mentioned, there are about 35 pension plans, comprised of money from "regular folk," that were invested with a financial manager, who in turn invested with Madoff.

You probably can throw stones and say "Why didn't those people look into where their money was being invested?" But if Madoff was concocting financial statements showing actual investments, which were in turn showed to their clients, it's easy to see how the waters muddy real fast.

"But if Madoff was concocting financial statements showing actual investments, which were in turn showed to their clients, it's easy to see how the waters muddy real fast."

that works, for a year or two. beyond that, it's willful blindness. no one rocks those kinds of returns no matter what. and that especially goes for pension managers, who sure as hell should have known better, and unlike hedge funds, aren't supposed to be swinging for the fences 24/7.

The government is still the biggest winner:

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/another-view-the-government-is-madoffs-biggest-winner/

He didn't take $50 billion, that was just the estimated value of all of the accounts. He still probably stole $10-$20 billion, but that also was paid out to older clients with the money from newer clients.

I might be completely dumb, so please excuse me, but I don't understand the following:

he scammed his clients out of around 50 billion.

where is the money? You cannot spend that amount of money.

Or did he literally burn it?

Maybe you need to read up on how a ponzi scheme actually works.

oh wow, thanks for the advice!!!!!!!!!!!

He's only kidding. No one can show you how to tie your shoelaces.

No problem, I can show you how to tie your shoelaces too if you like.

ALL CAPS? Excited much?

i can't wait to see him at sentencing, after he's pale from the lack of sunlight and he can longer rinse that silvery mane with Alterna TEN.

They should revive the stocks for this guy, the kind where your head and hands are trapped in wooden brackets while people do stuff to you. Hope there will be something like this awaiting him in jail...