Bernie Madoff will spend the rest of his life in prison. No doubt some would argue he should spend his afterlife in prison, too. Mr. Madoff, 71, perpetrated one of the largest, if not the largest, frauds in Wall Street history. His Ponzi scheme collapsed, as all such schemes usually do, but not before bilking everyone from friends to the famous out of at least $15 billion. The scheming lasted for at least two decades. Madoff never invested any of the money he took in from those he had taken. And when the economy tanked last year, Madoff was forced to admit that his long-revered investment house was a house of cards. A federal judge in New York could have sentenced Madoff to as few as 12 years. Even that might have been a life... [read full story]
