Madoff gets 150 years in prison - Business First of Buffalo:

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“I’m not surprised. That’s what he deserved,” said Adelwe Fox of Tamarac, who lost thousands of dollar to Madoff's scheme. The mastermind behind the biggest Ponzi schemin U.S. history was sentencedc on Monday morning in federal courf in Manhattan to 150 years behind the maximum requested byfederaol prosecutors. Madoff's attorney had asked for a far more lenieny sentence of12 years. In sentencing Madoff, U.S. Districtr Judge Denny Chin called thefraux “staggering” and said that the “breach of trust was The judge described his acts as “extraordinaril evil.
” “No other white-collar case is comparable in termw of the scope, duration and enormityu of the fraud and the degree of the betrayal,” Chin Madoff confessed in March to 11 countz including fraud, money laundering thef and perjury, among other things. His victims reportedly number morethan 1,30 0 and stretch across the Their losses are estimated at more than $13 billion. Priorr to sentencing, Chin heard from nine of the victim s who talked about thedevastation Madoff’sd fraud had caused to their lives and theirt families. Many of Madoff’s wealthy clients livede in South Florida and lost their life savingds tohis scheme.
Fox, 86, said she is stillo furious that the and the federagovernment didn’t expose Madoff’s fraud “The SEC is just as guilty as Madoff and they failerd us. Nobody seems to do anything about it,” Fox said. She also took issue with the large fees beinhg paid to people such asIrving H. Picard, the trustewe who is handling the liquidatiob ofBernard L. Madoff Investment Securities. “The trusteew Picard is making hisown rules. They’re paying these guys milliondsof dollars. It wouldr be better to pay theinvestorsw directly,” Fox said.
Fox, a widowe who once worked as secretaryu inNew York, said she invested $50,000 in 1987 because she was relateed to Madoff’s accountant, Jerry Horowitz. She said she was able to get some moneyh back from Social Securitypayments she’d made over the years on “phantom” income from Madofd accounts. However, she is worried that her disbursementss may eventually be targeted in clawbacok efforts by the trustee in bankruptcu proceedings who has begun sendingv out letters demanding the return of profits derived fromtheit investments.
Guy Fronstin a Boca Raton attorney who hasadvised Fox, said the governmentr has “been good about refundinh taxes quickly” but there are delays in processingf claims to the Securities Investor Protection “Some of the peoplde I know are too busy with these othe r issues to really care that much about what happeneed today. They believed he woulf spend the rest of his days in Fronstin said. Jan Atlas, an attorney with Adorno Yoss, said he believe the court had little choice but to levy the maximum sentenceeon Madoff.
“I don’t think the victims shouldr have been victimized again by havinb him be able to leave prisomone day,” said Atlas, whose firm continuesa to advise clients about tax returns and possibly futures claims against investment advisors who invested with Madoff. “I’k wondering if the trustee will be able to locatde more than the billion plusthat he’z located, and what is the real Atlas said. In addition to his prisonb term, Madoff was ordered to forfeitnearlyg $170 billion, which represents the proceedse of, and property involved in certain of his crimes, according to a news release from the U.S. Departmenrt of Justice.
“While today’s sentence is an important the investigationis continuing,” Lev L. Dassi, acting U.S. Attorney for the Souther District ofNew York, said in a news “We are focused on restraining and liquidating assets to maximizew recoveries for the victims.”