Madoff Must Stay in Prison, Appeals Court Says
A federal appeals court denied on Friday a request by a lawyer for Bernard L. Madoff that he be released from jail until his sentencing in June for running a $65 billion Ponzi scheme.
The three-judge panel issued its ruling less than 24 hours after Ira Lee Sorkin, Mr. Madoff’s lawyer, had asked that the 70-year-old Mr. Madoff be allowed to return to his Manhattan penthouse apartment. He is being held in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan after pleading guilty last week to 11 felony counts of fraud. He faces a maximum of 150 years in prison when he is sentenced on June 16.
The appeals court order upholds an earlier Federal District Court decision that Mr. Madoff represented a flight risk and should not be released on bail. Mr. Madoff had been held on $10 million bail since his arrest on Dec. 11, confined to his Upper East Side apartment building and protected by security guards, paid for by his wife. He was also required to wear an ankle bracelet and could leave his apartment only for court appearances.
“In light of the defendant’s age (70) and the length of a potential sentence (150 years), he has an incentive to flee, and that because he has the means to do so, he presents a risk of flight, and therefore should not be released,” the appeals court order said. It was issued by Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs and Judges Robert D. Sack and Richard C. Wesley of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
The three judges heard oral arguments on Thursday, during which Mr. Sorkin argued that because of the “platoons of people” surrounding Mr. Madoff’s apartment he would be unable to flee. In addition, Mr. Sorkin argued that Mr. Madoff — who did not appear in court for the Thursday hearing — would be unable to flee because his financial assets had been frozen.
But the appeals court agreed with the arguments presented by the federal prosecutor, Marc O. Litt, who said the fact that Mr. Madoff faced the equivalent of a life sentence made his risk of flight greater after his guilty plea than before.
His guilty plea removed any presumption of innocence, the appeals court noted, and added, “The defendant has a residence abroad, and has had ample opportunity over a long period of time to secret substantial resources outside the country.”
Many of Mr. Madoff’s many victims applauded in court when Mr. Madoff exited in handcuffs last week. His Ponzi scheme wiped out the investments of thousands of people and scores of charitable foundations. In addition, it has drawn heightened regulatory scrutiny of other fraudulent investment schemes.
For instance, in a statement issued on Friday, Bart Chilton, a commissioner of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, said that “rampant Ponzimonium” was being uncovered and commented on Mr. Madoff’s incarceration.
Referring to Mr. Madoff’s victims, Mr. Chilton said: “While he ‘made off” with their money, he has now traded in his Manhattan penthouse for a cell in the Big House.”
1 comment:
A branding blog did a blog post (yes, an ironic one) a while back on how Madoff's success could be attributed to knowing his Target Market (providing high, but not crazy-high returns, Consistency, and exclusivity, so that it felt like you were missing out if you weren't investing with Madoff).
The same blog (by Dr. Tantillo) published a new post last week about the failure of Madoff's brand---n his case, it was criminal action, but Tantillo points out that it was also a brand failure (therefore one other companies can learn from) in that his external image and actual brand were not consistent (obviously, he knew this):"In a way, Madoff is bringing all of Wall Street with him to jail, and the Wall Street brand is going to have to do a lot of repair before it regains anything like the credibility and power it once had."
He also points out that Madoff has worsened the image of (honest) sales with his downfall. Hopefully not all the (honest) marketers get grouped together with the scammers.
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