Bernie Madoff Will Not Appeal His 150 Year Sentence

By Jeralyn, Section Crime in the News
Posted on Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 06:16:30 PM EST
Tags: Bernard Madoff (all tags)

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Bernie Madoff's lawyer has confirmed that Bernie won't appeal his 150 year sentence. He thinks any sentence Bernie would get, even under the guidelines, would be a life sentence.

Can someone remind me what Bernie Madoff's lawyers' accomplished for him? He could have stayed with his wife in his apartment on bond for another year or two while fighting the case. He got no agreement that his family and friends wouldn't be investigated or charged. He and his wife gave up all his assets (except $2.5 million his wife gets to keep), including those that would have been difficult for the Government to prove were forfeitable, he got no sentence concession, no agreement on place of incarceration. And now they won't appeal the sentence.

What's left for Bernie? Any bets on whether he'll file a 2255 to overturn his guilty plea and sentence based on ineffective assistance of counsel? It wouldn't have a snowball's chance in h*ll but he's got a lot of time on his hands and a year to file it. As I've said a few times, what more could the Government have done to him --we don't have life plus cancer as a penalty (yet.)

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Bernie Madoff Will Not Appeal His 150 Year Sentence | 16 comments (16 topical)

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It may be possible (5.00 / 1) (#6)
by eric on Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 07:31:37 PM EST

that Mr. Madoff has simply given up and accepted his fate. He did a straight plea without any deal. They surely told him what would happen, but it is he who calls the shots, not his lawyers.

The point of Madoff taking it like this (5.00 / 1) (#8)
by scribe on Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 08:09:43 PM EST

was that he was protecting others. He is protecting his wife, his sons, the feeder fund people, you name it. Not just from criminal and civil charges, but also from angry investors (especially those Spelled "R-u-s-s-i-a-n o-l-i-g-a-r-c-h-s"). This way, he figures he never has to say anything. No cooperation. No ratting out. No help to the government at all. He goes to his cell and later his grave silent.

I would bet he knows or suspects he either has a terminal disease or figures that his life expectancy in the joint is less than the actuarial tables would provide.

But let's not take this as an example of some noble sentiment or inner nobility in Bernie: he was and is a sociopath who worked people for his own advantage. He ruined a lot of lives, and that's granting that the people who invested with him were quite happy when he was providing returns which were impossible not to have been from fraud of one flavor or another and were smart enough to know that much (all that they needed to know) even if they didn't know all the particulars about how Bernie's particular fraud worked out. And this debacle has now revealed that for all his success, his menschlichkeit, and all the rest, Bernie Madoff was a sociopath who spent his entire professional career working a fraud and flinging a Lipstick Building-sized F.U. at the world, the government, and particularly the investors he defrauded. This no-cooperation, no-appeal stance of his is just another aspect of that pathology.

It may turn out that he got about as (5.00 / 1) (#9)
by inclusiveheart on Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 08:51:42 PM EST

good legal counsel as he gave in investment advice and management.

Somehow (5.00 / 0) (#10)
by Lora on Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 09:42:33 PM EST

I just can't get myself too worked up feeling sorry for the guy.

Harry Markolopos on why Madoff turned self in (5.00 / 1) (#13)
by polizeros on Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 01:27:48 AM EST

Harry Markopolos says the feeder funds were one step away from organized crime. he spotted the Ponzi scheme in 1999 and repeatedly told SEC, who did nothing.

Madoff had taken money from every corner of the globe and he had taken it from some very unsavory characters. That's why he didn't flee; he had nowhere to run and nowhere to hide; so he did the logical thing - he turned himself in.
The "off-shore" feeder funds were only one step removed from organized crime. If organized crime knew that Madoff was stealing their money, he would have been killed

My wife, like Markopolos, is also a Certified Fraud Examiner. She says maybe organized crime was in it from the beginning, as early investors in a Ponzi scheme always get the highest return.

IMO Madoff is protecting / fearful of powerful forces. Question. Where did the money go? Answer that, and we will know much.

LOL (none / 0) (#1)
by Spamlet on Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 06:43:47 PM EST

we don't have life plus cancer as a penalty (yet)

Maybe (none / 0) (#2)
by lentinel on Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 06:51:50 PM EST

Maybe Bernie just needs to get away for awhile.

: I think he is hoping to escape and (none / 0) (#3)
by oculus on Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 06:54:40 PM EST

help spend that 2.5 mil. And maybe a movie.

: Retreating to his "cave." (none / 0) (#4)
by oculus on Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 06:55:15 PM EST

I'm against prison (none / 0) (#5)
by MKS on Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 07:02:00 PM EST

for white collar offenders. For drug offenders too. For most offenders, while we're at it.

Prison should only be used for the most violent, dangerous felons that can be controlled in no other way.

Some day, people will look back at what we do fighting crime today and gasp with horror.

: Yes (5.00 / 1) (#12)
by MKS on Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 12:30:24 AM EST

I would take away all of their money and make offenders perform community service at minimum wage for the length of the sentence: in Madoff's case, for life.
Putting someone in a cage is akin to torture imho, to be used only as a last resort.
For white collar offenders, to permanently deprive them of any but susbsistence wealth is just indeed.

: I'm against prison for non-violent offenders (none / 0) (#11)
by MrConservative on Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 11:01:52 PM EST

But I consider fraud a form of emotional violence.
Then again, since most of them really aren't any danger to society, maybe a punishment outside of prison would make more sense.

Unlike most here, I'm no legal expert, (none / 0) (#14)
by easilydistracted on Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 07:55:28 AM EST

but one explanation might be related to what Bernie deemed was an acceptable risk. His lawyer argued at sentencing that anything beyond 10 or 15 Years was tanatamount to a life sentence and therefore too extreme of a punishment. Perhaps Bernie hoped his complete cooperation at all junctures of the trial would provide that plea with some much needed traction. He simply rolled the dice and, well, got snake eyes.

: I still think he believed that if he didn't (none / 0) (#17)
by Inspector Gadget on Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 04:08:09 PM EST

make lawyers go looking for evidence against him, they wouldn't pursue the others involved in his scam.
I did read a few days ago, though, that something like 10 more arrests are coming that are directly connected to him.

I don't understand, you feel sorry for him? (none / 0) (#15)
by Saul on Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 08:42:28 AM EST

Maybe, his lawyers told him all his options, did there best and could have delayed his imprisonment, and yet Bernie said no I deserve all this and decided not to request any mercy.

Maybe by staying in prison he fells safer and it assures he might not be killed on the outside by one of his many victims who would not have hesitated to take their revenge.

He didn't want to hurt his family (none / 0) (#16)
by Jlvngstn on Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 09:03:07 AM EST

any more than he had to. I think his wife has a better shot at moving on with the way he handled it. I assume she was in the dark and if she was, living with him for the year would be hell, no? I think he did the right thing, finally.