The problem with Madoff is only due to the incredible culture of greed fueled by ignorance and complacency that has infiltrated society as a whole.

Something I keep saying is that one of the oldest adages of investing is "Don't put all your eggs in one basket".

Obviously Madoff is guilty of heinous, eggregious behavior but the fact that it impacted so many people so severley is only due to their stupidity.

If you are going to be involved with investing of any kind, even at the passbook savings account level, you must be aware of the circumstances that are influencing the market.

Quite frankly, anyone who invests more than 20% of their net worth into any one account, fund, stock, bank, whatever... deserves to get ripped off. The Madoff business model has been going on for decades and despite making it illegal there are so many unique and creative accounting techniques it is nearly impossible to find them until they fail. Although anyone who claims to be consistently winning at the market should be watched bery carefully because either they are doing something very very right (Warren Buffet) or very very wrong (Bernie Madoff, ENRON, TYCO, WorldCom, Global Crossing and dozens of others) It's obvious there are more bad than good.

As far as Madoff goes, let him be judged and sentenced by the people he scammed. If they achieve satisfaction then so should we. Personally I would have him cleaning toilets at highway rest stops, film it like a reality show and sell it pay per view for $1.00. There could be a new episode every week with the toilets becoming progressively dirtier. Use the proceeds to pay off the idiots who invested with him in the first place. Let his wife work with him and to escalate the drama announce which toilets he would be cleaning in advance to give people the opportunity to leave him special "packages"

Not sure if that would make much sense ... now the rest of us would have to cough up more dough in order to watch this weasel? I'd say skip all that cable nonsense and have him clean at the source--in real time, while the action is good, as they say!

Personally, I'm all for opening him up into tiny pieces, and using horses wouldn't be a bad idea, the old-fashioned way in the good ole days.

He should get 1 year for every person he defrauded.

He should get whatever will exceed his actuarial life expectancy by 20 years, a portion to his spawn and stooges.

Maybe he can be talked into dropping a dime on a few other "financiers" who are running or are about to run similar schemes.

Oh, stop it. Make him a waiter @ the Palm Beach country club he belonged to, on work release. There were no victims, only volunteers.

A couple of years ago, during the tech boom, we had a local boy named Michael Saylor who was at the helm of a company named Microstrategy that was involved with all manner of financial chicanery. If my memory serves me correctly on March 11, 2000, he lost something like $13 billion dollars when the stock which had closed at approx. $283 opened the next day at $111 and dropped in the abyss. What happened to Saylor? Nothing. He is still at the helm of Microstrategy and it survives in a dramatically reduced tech world. Saylor continues to have lavish parties on his yacht which he docks in Georgetown and I believe was going to buy a G5 with company funds. In short, men want to be him, women adore him. Madoff and Saylor are really the same person and we helped to create both of them; we gave them the opportunity to thrive and survive. They'll be with us forever and it's interesting that they ripped off the smartest of investors, people who don't need the details because they understand everything. Look at that list of investors in Madoff's funds and think of the thousands of dreams that will go unrealized and the little old ladies and men who worked all of their lives only to see the concrete representation of their life's work, cash, disappear when it turned out like Saylor, that Madoff had created a large abstraction that only served as a distraction to steal the funds of others. Neither has shown any remorse. I have to disagree with the Mr. Savile, at times, there's nothing like a hanging at sunrise to get everyone's attention. Bernie should go to the most deplorable prison we can find and stay there forever. It would be interesting to see if the mastermind who bilked the rich, powerful, and the most intelligent minds of our generation can do the same with criminals and gang leaders. That's a reality series I'd pay to watch.

Bernie did more than scam a few wealthy individual investors who were blinded by their greed into investing with him. He knowingly accepted huge sums from charities and universities whose funds were used to support the education and material support of the poor of society and converted them to support an audacious life style. He is more evil then the Al Queda people who at least believe that a moral imperative entitles them to wage war and heap destruction on the innocents of societies of non-believers. Bernie Madoff should be sentenced to serve the rest of his wretched life inGuantanamo (which like Spandau prison should be kept open to accomodate him and like scammers) and water boarded regularly for his war on the plain people who relied on the charities he despoiled.

No one wants to except responsibility for anything. Madoff did not hold a gun to anyones head and force them to sign away their life savings. He did not come like a thief in the night. It was all done in broad daylight. They gave him money willingly and knowingly because the returns,10% on their money, seemed so good. Their greed triumphed over their questioning judgement. The so called victims are now trying a page from Bernie's Book: Get someone else to pay. Well, it better not be us, the American taxpayers. Know this, the truth is always in the details. No one knows everything. Your bank account numbers are not your IQ. That smug attitude and the money that seems to accompany it, was what allowed Bernie to get away with it for so long. It helped to hold the pens his victims used to sign the interest checks he gave them. Madoffs investors should get what they deserve, a humbling experience. Madoffs punishment should be the same as that of other first time offenders, along with a bigger than usual fine.

Interesting commentary by all in including the writer of said article.
Yes, I am certain there is a bit of greed here, but there is also something that seems to be lacking from all and that is the very simple word integrity. Bernie was an impostor. This is a cultural thing and it goes way back in time, back to when people died rather than violate a trust. This is really a very rare occasion and he should get a light sentence - perhaps a year or two. Some of the people he screwed have better and more effective methods than any court or jail. I really think that they should get a chance. They have never been known to kill people - abject misery is more their game, something akin to the biblical JOB.

Madoff investors who took a quick payout on lost money are having second thoughts: http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/7319

He should be put on a deserted island as part of a "reality show" and the people he screwed should be put there with him and LET THE DRUMS ROLL!!!

That's incredible it lasted for so much time....

there are many more individuals or church groups who under the non profit guise of "helping the poor" collect Billions of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ from not only wealthy but poor people.My ex husband has been under chuch-religious threats of "the wrath of GOD'"if he does not pay extortion money to these Baptist churches, who are above the law.I have been personally persecuted by these church members, who stole my ID, messed up my job, cuased so umch financial and emotional distress to such a level that they , these church members recommended my death or that I committ suicide. How much damage have they done?They stalk me day and night, the police church members have used false information because they want me to commit a wrong so they can sacrifice me for Christ. These church whores slept with my husbande, stole his money around $1million. Not only that they demand that I give my life and everything I own to Jesus Christ. I have never committed a crime.These religious criminals are far worse than a Bernie Madoff, because they have inflitrated the mental hospitals, the prison system,the justice system, politics, from City Hall to the White House, there is religously based corruption.Their strategy is to destroy people by religious means, taxfree, and undetected.