Bernie Madoff, at 71 years old, may be staring down what would be effectively a life sentence. The prosecution and defense have vastly different views heading into court today, but the answer will come at 10 AM (EDT), when the hearing is scheduled to begin. Approximately 100 letters have been sent to the judge, and 10 people will relate their opinions directly.

Madoff's family members are not expected to be in the courtroom for the sentencing, as they haven't been to any of his appearances following his arrest last September.

We recently presented a look at some of the most notorious financial felons of contemporary times.

Since then, news has included the indictment of Mark Cuban for insider trading in a case that is somewhat reminiscent of Martha Stewart's case. According to the SEC, the billionaire entrepreneur asked his broker to sell all his shares of Mamma.com after the company's CEO confidentially told him of an impending stock offering that would dilute the value of all existing shares. By selling before the information became public, Cuban is said to have sidestepped losses of more than $750,000. Cuban insists, though, that no agreement existed to keep the information confidential.

And then there was the indictment in Texas of Vice President Dick Cheney, along with former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and others. There seems to be a conflict of interest between the vice president's influence on the federal agency that oversees federal immigration detention centers and his substantial holdings in Vanguard Group, which invests in private prison companies. But does the lame-duck county district attorney, who was a no-show in court, have the authority to bring charges against federal officials with regard to federally run institutions?

Bernard Ebbers, WorldCom's founder, built it into the world's largest telephone company, then drove it into the ground with his illegal dealings. He overstated WorldCom's cash flow by improperly booking $11 billion in company revenues. Shareholders first became aware of the problem when WorldCom announced it needed to restate its financial reports in March 2002.

As part of his shenanigans, Ebbers got $400 million in off-the-books loans from the company. Criminal fraud charges were filed against Ebbers and former Chief Financial Officer Scott Sullivan. Sullivan pleaded guilty to three criminal charges related to the fraud and cooperated with prosecutors in their case against Ebbers. Ebbers was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He is serving his time in the Oakdale, Louisiana, Federal Corrections institute.

Investor groups filed a class-action case against WorldCom's former directors, former executives, 18 banks, and its auditor, the infamous Arthur Anderson. A settlement was reached with some of these plaintiffs. Some former WorldCom directors paid a total of $50 million toward the settlement. Citigroup, which had promoted WorldCom's stocks and bonds as good investments even though it had concerns about WorldCom's rocky financial position, paid $2.65 billion.

Today, Bernard Ebbers will begin his 25-year sentence for the implosion of WorldCom. Based on federal sentencing rules, he will stay in prison at least until 2028. Given that Ebbers is 65, this is likely to be a life sentence.

Then again, Ebbers was at the helm of one of the biggest accounting fraud schemes, which has led to far-reaching regulations, such as Sarbanes-Oxley.

Ebbers will certainly have a lot of time to think about his misdeeds. But, we investors should also take some time to reflect. In other words, what can we learn from all this?

Let's look back at Ebbers' history. In fact, there is a new book, Business Fairy Tales, which has a comprehensive chapter on the WorldCom saga. The author is Cecil Jackson, a USC finance professor.

Actually, WorldCom started in the early 1980s with a good idea: With the break-up of AT&T, there was a huge opportunity for savvy companies to provide better long-distance phone services.

Ebbers realized that to succeed his company needed to quickly increase his customer base and build a scalable network. The fastest way to do this was to buy other companies. But, with little cash in the bank, what could he do?