Madoff Sentenced to 150 Years
June 30, 2009
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June 30, 2009
Bernard L. Madoff, the mastermind behind one of the biggest and longest-running financial frauds in history, on Monday was ordered to serve 150 years in prison, the maximum sentence allowed, for a scheme that has come to define the latest iteration of Wall Street greed.
The sentence far surpasses that of other recent high-profile white-collar crimes and took many noted criminal defense attorneys and former federal prosecutors by surprise. In handing down the sentence, federal District Judge Denny Chin acknowledged that any term above 25 years would be symbolic, given Madoff's advanced age of 71. Nevertheless, the judge said, it was important that the severity of the sentence serve as a deterrent to future offenders.
"The message must be sent that Mr. Madoff's crimes were extraordinarily evil," Chin said, his voice a stoic monotone.
However, several legal experts questioned whether the sentence would achieve Chin's objective. "Unfortunately, the way it works with these types of financial crimes is that for some individuals, greed is larger and more powerful than the deterrent effect," said Lilly Ann Sanchez, a former federal prosecutor who is now a white-collar criminal defense lawyer in Miami. "In these very large financial crimes . . . typically involving extremely powerful men who have all their lives been able to control and create whatever they wanted to, I do believe that there is some sense that they can go forward and do what they need to do, and, almost with impunity."
Thomas M. Durkin, a partner at the law firm Mayer Brown who is also a former federal prosecutor, said the 150-year sentence, usually reserved for perpetrators of violent and fatal crimes, is in effect a life sentence for anyone and could serve as a deterrent "if anyone thought about what they were doing before they committed the crime. . . . But the problem is most people don't."
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