Today, according to msnbc.com, financier Bernie Madoff has pleaded guilty to all charges held against him. Madoff was involved in perhaps the largest Ponzi Scheme of all-time, and his disgraceful and deceitful actions have cheated countless people and organizations out of all of their life savings. He pleaded guilty to 11 felony charges, and could potentially receive a sentence of 150 years in jail.
“'I cannot adequately express how sorry I am for what I have done,” Madoff told the court, admitting that for many years he had operated a Ponzi scheme. He added that he is “painfully aware” that he has “deeply hurt many many people,'” according to MSNBC.
It is estimated that Madoff cost his investors in between ten and sixteen billion dollars. In addition, not only did numerous people lose money, years of philanthopy done for charities have been wiped out. Jewish organizations, such as Hadassah and Taglit Birthright Israel have basically been depleted because of investing with Madoff.
Hopefully, Madoff will receive a proper punishment for cheating so many people out of their live savings and their trust for the business world.
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Stomaching this sort of news is so hard in times like these. How could anyone do this? Especially now when money is such an issue, to have your life savings wiped out thanks to someone you trusted with your money seems so terrible. It's people like Madoff that have brought our economy to where it is now, because everyone is so eager to help themselves that they don't mind stepping on everyone else. I know that there is a huge difference between what Madoff did and the sub-prime mortgages and other credit-related issues that brought down our economy (especially since what Madoff did was illegal), but in essence they're similar because no one was thinking about the big picture, and how their actions would effect this economy as a whole. And charities? If he was so "painfully aware" how could he have let it happen? It obviously didn't hurt him too much while he was doing it, but I guess hindsight is always 20/20.
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