Wednesday, Bernard Madoff requested leniency through his attorney Ira Sorkin, who suggested a sentence of 12 years would be a sufficient penalty for his client's crime of stealing billions of dollars in one of the greatest frauds in history.

Sentencing by U.S. District Judge Denny Chin is set for Monday June 29, and the eyes of the world will be upon him. So will the eyes of the yet-to-be discovered fraudsters everywhere.

My thoughts on the subject are relatively simple and have little to do with revenge or payback. In cases like this I often remember a very old quote from another time and place.

When you hear about the outrageous accusations against Wall Street icon, now shamed, Bernard Maddoff, regarding his $50 billion Ponzi scheme and the corrupt thinking Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and his peddling of Obama's Senate seat, it almost makes you want to bring back the firing squad because their offenses are almost treasonous.

Are we not in the midst of a financial battle of historic proportion? If the charges against them hold true, have they not destroyed the lives of thousands of people, not to mention the integrity of both the political and financial systems at a time when our nation is in crises?

Unfortunately, as they used to quip in another time; "hanging is too good for them!"

I have another solution for them and all white collar criminals doing soft time, even if it is a long time, PUT THEM TO WORK!

With all the talk about mortgage fraud, Freddie Mac, Samuel Israel, and now the mother of all scandals, Bernard Madoff, it's easy to conclude that we are in the midst of a financial disaster.

But on his White Collar Fraud blog, ex-con Sam E. Antar writes that the wave of fraud is really an illusion. In effect, fraud is being exposed right now because of the market collapse. Fraudulent investment schemes are a lot easier to run when a bull market is there to bail things out. As Warren Buffett said, you get to see who's swimming naked when the tide goes out. The down market has put an end to a lot of scams that might have been able to linger on unexposed if the economy were better.

But the sad thing is that these massive financial crimes are only being exposed now because they are collapsing, and there's essentially nothing left for investors to recoup. Antar writes that "We simply do not have enough adequate effective measures in place, to prevent most white collar crimes .... Worse yet, during a strong economy, our regulators and policy makers often ignore or pay little attention to crime prevention resources and regulations that can actually reduce the amount of white collar crime. Often white collar law enforcement resources are reduced and regulations are watered down, in the name of efficiency and regulatory relief, to promote economic growth."

The high-profile, 24-year prison sentence awarded to former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling aside, most white-collar criminals convicted during President Bush's crackdown on white-collar crime aren't serving much prison time at all.

61% of those sentenced spent no more than two years in jail, with 28% receiving no prison time at all, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

After the collapse of Enron, President Bush established a corporate fraud task force to bring justice to unscrupulous executives, but a lot of people wonder whether so little prison time is really justice. In a speech in September 2002, Mr. Bush said, "This broad effort is sending a clear warning and a clear message to every dishonest corporate leader: You will be exposed and you will be punished. We will deter corporate crimes by enforcing tough penalties.''

A piece in the Sunday New York Times tells the sad story of Richard Guthrie, a 92-year-old man who was defrauded of his life savings through an elaborate scheme perpetrated by criminals posing as telemarketers. These evil people take advantage of elders like Mr. Guthrie, who are particularly susceptible to fraud because they may be too trusting or lonely, and in dire financial straits. In Guthrie's case, he was living on the $800 per month he receives from Social Security. He passed the time since his wife passed away by entering sweepstakes contests, and the promoters frequently, and knowingly, sold his personal information to unscrupulous people.

Elder fraud strikes me as the most evil of white-collar crimes, and I did some looking around on the internet for resources for understanding and preventing the financial abuse of the elderly.

I have a copy of ex-con turned private investigator Barry Minkow's Frauds Gone Wild: Protecting Yourself from Elder Abuse. The DVD provides an entertaining look at the psychology of this crime, as well as offering an acronym that provides some suggestions for how to avoid being taken. While it strikes me as expensive at $17.99, it's a must for senior centers or church groups. Watch it with friends.

Fraud.org also has a nice section on elder fraud and telemarketing fraud, as well as Five Tips for Protecting Elders from Telemarketing Fraud. The Department of Justice also has a piece on why seniors are so vulnerable to fraud, and how to prevent it.

If you have elderly parents, or perhaps a neighbor, I strongly recommend reading through these materials, and discussing these issues with them. I had a nice talk about it with my grandmother today.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation says that the Internet has all but dissipated the international boundaries to crime. The nature of today's free world trade and the infrastructure that trade freedom requires have opened wide new avenues of exploitation for crooks and confidence games of many kinds. The worst part is that yesterday's mugger with a mask and a gun has become today's friendly banker who is offering you a low interest loan. The tactics are changing but the result is the same. Someone wants a chunk of your bank account... or the whole thing.

The Internet Crime Complaint Center, a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center issued a composite list of the top ten Internet facilitated crimes. Of all Internet associated crimes reported, auction fraud was number one, holding that spot with 44.9% of the total reported crimes. Non-delivery of goods came in a distant second at 19% of the total. Check fraud, credit card fraud and computer fraud combined for about 12% of the total. Financial center fraud, identity theft, investment fraud and child pornography rounded out the field with about 5% combined total.

Sanjay Kumar, a young guy at 44-years-old, will now spend the next 12 years in prison.

While CEO of CA, Inc. (NYSE:CA), Kumar got too loosey-goosey with the accounting, so much that the company had to change its name because of the bad publicity. Originally, the company was called Computer Associates. In all, the fraud amounted to about $2.2 billion in misrepresentations.

Kumar's shenanigans were quite creative, actually. For example, he had the concept of a 35-day month. This is always useful to squeeze in more sales. There was also backdating of contracts (i.e., if the month was not long enough).

The irony is that CA is a leader in software to help companies deal with things like, well, accounting and disclosures. Hey, who better to know how to make magic with the financials?

True, 12 years is a long time, but Kumar will still be young when he gets out of prison. Besides, his fine is a mere $8 million.

In fact, because of his crimes, Kumar could have received a life sentence. I guess the judge thinks $2.2 billion is kind of a small number.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and operates InvestorOffering.com.