Madoff Made Off Like Bandit He Is
As widely reported, Bernie Madoff has been sentenced to 150 years in prison for committing perhaps the biggest fraud in history with his Ponzi scheme. People have expressed all kinds of opinions and emotions about this. Even though I had no money in Madoff’s investments, I have a lousy feeling.
It’s sort of like the CEO who treats employees like crap, operates the company as though he were a monarch, runs it into the ground, and then gets a big severance package. The subsequent bad publicity detailing what a jerk he really was is supposed to make everything alright.
Well, it doesn’t, just as Madoff’s prison sentence doesn’t make everything alright. He lived like a king for decades. No one knows where all the money he has is. He caused people with a lot of money and people without that much money to lose everything they had. He knew what he was doing. He knew people had enormous trust in him. He betrayed them.
Perhaps what’s most troubling is that colleagues in a position to know what he was doing said nothing. The one or two people who went to regulators with signifcant evidence of fraud were turned away or ignored. Madoff gets 150 years. His knowing colleagues get nothing. The regulators get nothing. The investors now have nothing.
A Madoff-like scheme is probably in operation right now. If not, one will be in operation sooner or later. The money to be made – billions — can’t be offset by the chance of 150 years in prison when you’re old. In this era when the average executive make 300 times what the average worker makes, Madoff is the perfect role model. He’s going to jail, but Madoff made off like a bandit.
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About Chris Parker
Chris Parker's practice focuses on the representation and counseling of companies in matters pertaining to the workplace and the protection of their intellectual property and trade secrets. In addition to serving as an advocate for clients, Mr. Parker is also trained as a mediator and frequently serves as a third-party neutral.
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Jimmy Daniel provides counseling to businesses of all sizes related to the employment relationship. He assists in the drafting of employment agreements, policies, and handbooks, as well as provides guidance related to compliance with federal, state, and local legislation such as the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act.
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While serving in an Of Counsel relationship with the firm, Mr. Bridgesmith also serves as the Executive Director at the Institute for Conflict Resolution at Lipscomb University and as an officer and principal in Strategic Resolutions Group, LLC. In these roles, Mr. Bridgesmith brings over 30 years of legal experience in dispute resolution and innovative workplace strategies to clients, students and business entities alike.
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You are so right. There is no (legal) punishment bad enough to offset the damage he did. He should be forced to look at pictures everyday of the people he harmed and hear about how they are struggling due to his selfishness. His wife and family should not benefit from his schemes either.
That being said, let’s not forget that the people who trusted him heard a story that was too good to be true and went for it anyway. Many others heard the story and didn’t believe it. As bad as I feel for the real losers in this, they also have to bear some responsibility. And they are, by losing their money (and that may be too large a price to pay for stupidity and greediness.)
What we need now is a way to do a little payback to the ones who knew, but did nothing, so in the future people in the same position are less inclined to look the other way.