Madoff reduced to nothing

[Dos Equis]

I vote for 150 years.   

Madoff reduced to nothing
Government seizes all assets from Ponzi mastermind, who faces maximum of 150 years in prison at his sentencing Monday. Wife loses millions in assets.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Bernard and Ruth Madoff have been stripped of their vast riches.

The government announced Friday night that it had seized all of Bernard Madoff's property in a deal that also forces his wife to give up homes and property worth millions.

Federal prosecutors obtained a $170 billion legal judgment against Madoff.

Madoff, 71, masterminded the largest and most sweeping Ponzi scheme ever, and now faces the possibility of spending the rest of his natural life in prison.

Madoff is scheduled to be sentenced on Monday morning in a federal court in Manhattan.

On Friday, prosecutors urged U.S. District Judge Denny Chin to hand out the full possible sentence of 150 years. Earlier in the week, Madoff argued in court papers that he should be sentenced to a term of as little as 12 years.

The court papers released Friday night indicate that Bernard and Ruth Madoff will give up any claim on nearly $80 million worth of property.

These include $60 million and three homes: A Manhattan apartment valued at $7.5 million, a $7 million house in Montauk, N.Y., and a $7.45 million home in Palm Beach, Fla.

In addition, the government will get $1.48 million from the sale of a Madoff home in Cap d'Antibes, France, as well as furniture, artwork, jewelry other items. The Madoffs will also lose their interest in "tens of millions of dollars" in loans they had made to family, employees and friends.

Madoff confessed on March 12 to a scam that stole billions of dollars from thousands of victims. He used his investment firm, Bernard L. Madoff Securities, which he founded in 1960, as a front.

In a Ponzi scheme, the scammer uses fresh money from unsuspecting investors to make payments to more mature investors, creating the false appearance of legitimate returns. In Madoff's case, he sent statements to victims claiming that their investments had grown several times over, but in actuality he had stolen, not invested, their money.

Investigators said that Madoff maintained an aura of exclusivity, while his alleged accomplices courted new investors because they needed a constant influx of fresh funds. Investigators believe that Madoff had been running his scam since at least the 1980s until he finally ran out of money in December 2008, when he admitted the fraud to family members.

. . . .

http://money.cnn.com/2009/06/26/news/economy/madoff_sentence/index.htm?postversion=2009062622

[grab an umbrella]

So many inaccuracies in this story.  Maddoffs wasn't the largest ponzi scheme, social security takes the bank on that.

[2ND COMING]

hmm its unfolding now.

judge said he'll give madoff a "reasonable" sentance

[2ND COMING]

holy shit they gave him 150 years lmfao

[tonymctones]

holy shit they gave him 150 years lmfao

FUCK YA...that deusch should get the death penalty as far as im concerned.

[shootfighter1]

Great, glad they took nearly everything from him.  He took more than that from others.  There's little worse than extreme greed + deception.

[Hereford]

California should hire him to run the state finances. It's one big taxation ponzi scheme... he'd fit right in.

[Deicide]

California should hire him to run the state finances. It's one big taxation ponzi schemefamliy of mexicans... he'd fit right in.

Fixed

[Dos Equis]

Nice.  Justice. 

[Dos Equis]

U.S. Marshals Seize Madoff's Penthouse
Thursday, July 02, 2009 

 NEW YORK —  The U.S. Marshals Service on Thursday took possession of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff's $7 million Manhattan penthouse, an action that forced his wife to move elsewhere.

U.S. Marshal Joseph Guccione said the marshals arrived at the property at noon with a court order permitting them to take custody of the apartment and cause anyone there to move out.

Guccione said Madoff's wife Ruth had been advised in advance of the marshals' plans and was leaving the residence, surrendering all personal property.

"She will be leaving," he said. "Restitution for the victims is the government's top priority."

Typically, the marshals service changes all locks and secures a property when it seizes a location.

The 71-year-old Madoff was sentenced Monday to 150 years in prison. He pleaded guilty in March to charges that his investment advisory business was a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that wiped out thousands of investors and ruined charities.

Authorities said Madoff had carried out the fraud for at least two decades before confessing to his sons in December that his investment business was a fraud and that he had lost as much as $50 billion.

Last week, Ruth Madoff agreed to give up all of her possessions in return for a promise that federal prosecutors would not go after $2.5 million she can keep. The money, though, is not protected from civil legal actions that might be pursued by a court-appointed trustee liquidating Madoff's assets or by investor lawsuits.

Ruth Madoff broke her silence Monday when she said in a statement that her husband "stunned us all with his confession and is responsible for this terrible situation in which so many now find themselves."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,529858,00.html