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150 Ans De Prison Pour Madoff
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» LeChat replied on Mon Jun 29, 2009 @ 1:47pm |
 Coolness: 116275 | Luis Torres de la Llosa
Agence France-Presse New York Le financier américain Bernard Madoff, accusé de l'une des plus gigantesques escroqueries de tous les temps, a été condamné lundi à 150 ans de prison par un tribunal de New York, la peine maximale requise. «Bernard Madoff est condamné à 150 ans de prison. Ainsi en a décidé cette cour,» a déclaré le juge Denny Chin. Le ministère public avait requis cette même peine à l'encontre de l'ex-président du conseil d'administration du Nasdaq à la Bourse de New York. A 71 ans, l'ancienne coqueluche des milieux financiers, qui a jonglé pendant 30 ans avec les milliards de dollars confiés par des banques, des particuliers aisés ou des organisations caritatives, avait plaidé coupable le 12 mars des 11 chefs d'inculpation, dont fraude, parjure, blanchiment d'argent et vol. Il évitait ainsi un procès devant jury. Madoff était depuis incarcéré loin du confort de son luxueux appartement de l'Upper East Side (nord-est de Manhattan). Arrivé lundi au tribunal vers 10h, entouré de policiers et d'une horde de journalistes, Bernard Madoff, en costume impeccable, a fait face calmement au juge qui a décidé de son sort. Le financier déchu a demandé pardon à ses innombrables victimes. «Je devrai vivre avec cette douleur le reste de ma vie (...) je demande pardon à mes victimes. Je suis désolé», a-t-il dit peu avant que sa peine ne soit prononcée. «Je suis ici pour voir comment agit le système judiciaire face au plus grand voleur de l'histoire de l'univers», avait lancé devant le bâtiment du tribunal Michael De Vita, 59 ans, l'une des innombrables victimes de Madoff, avant sa condamnation. Au total, selon les enquêteurs, 13 milliards de dollars ont été remis à Madoff et les pertes se chiffreraient entre 50 et 65 milliards, correspondant aux gains qu'auraient engendré les sommes prêtées si les intérêts avaient été réels. Le juge du tribunal du district sud de New York chargé de son procès a par ailleurs publié un mandat préalable autorisant la confiscation des biens de M. Madoff à hauteur de 170 milliards de dollars. Le financier a avoué n'avoir jamais investi un centime des sommes qu'il avait en portefeuille. Il avait monté un «schéma de Ponzi» -du nom d'un de ses prédécesseurs dans les années 20-, une cavalerie financière qui consistait à rémunérer les investisseurs avec l'argent déposé par de nouveaux clients. Le système a fonctionné jusqu'au jour où les demandes de retrait ont explosé avec la crise de l'automne 2008. «Je prédis qu'il sera condamné à 20 ans de prison ou plus, peut être 25», avait indiqué à l'AFP Bradley Simon, un ancien procureur devenu avocat. L'avocat de Madoff avait plaidé l'indulgence: 12 ans de prison, un peu moins des «13 ans qui lui restent à vivre», selon les statistiques américaines d'espérance de vie. L'affaire avait éclaté le 11 décembre. Un communiqué laconique des autorités annonçait l'arrestation d'un courtier célèbre, PDG de l'entreprise «Bernard Madoff Investment Securities» (BMIS). Le millionnaire avait confié la veille à ses deux fils qu'il «n'avait plus rien et avait perdu environ 50 milliards de dollars», selon le document du tribunal. Assigné à résidence, l'ancien roi de Wall Street avait pu assister au désarroi de ses clients, de la banque Santander en Espagne à la Fondation Elie Wiesel aux États-Unis, des vedettes de Hollywood aux retraités qui lui avaient confié leurs économies. Après le volet pénal, d'autres instances, civiles, l'attendent. Et l'audience ne permettra pas de connaître les montants à restituer: la justice se dit incapable de les chiffrer. Les procureurs ont demandé un délai de trois mois, au terme duquel la Cour ordonnera la restitution de l'argent ou décidera qu'elle est impossible. |
| I'm feeling the bass right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» basdini replied on Tue Jun 30, 2009 @ 11:24am |
 Coolness: 145940 | c'est qu'un petit poisson...les vrais requines se sont esquiver... |
| I'm feeling surly right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» LeChat replied on Tue Jun 30, 2009 @ 12:08pm |
| Coolness: 116275 | probablement, mais 150ans de prison... il va trouver le temps long mais il le merite |
| I'm feeling the bass right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» databoy replied on Tue Jun 30, 2009 @ 12:15pm |
 Coolness: 106855 | What Madoff Really Needs is Company, and Lots of It
Don't get Madoff, get even: Bernie Madoff may deserve his 150-year jail sentence – but he wasn't the biggest crook on Wall Street by Richard Adams Everyone knew that Bernie Madoff was going down – since he had already pleaded guilty to running a fake investment scheme worth between $65bn and $171bn. So there was none of the drama that accompanied fraud trials like that of Jeffrey Skilling, who maintained his innocence even after he was convicted for his part in the collapse of Enron. The only question today was how long inside Madoff would get. His lawyers suggested – in a spirit of optimism only paid advocates could muster – that Madoff deserved just 12 years in jail. The judge gave him the maximum 150. So, with time off for good behaviour, Bernie will be out in time to celebrate his 146th birthday in 2084. In other words, barring a judicial miracle, the 71-year-old Madoff will spend the rest of his life behind bars. In terms of discouraging others from selling their souls in return for enjoying 20 years of wealth and prestige, Madoff's sentence is a good thing. And it is tempting to indulge in schadenfreude at Madoff's expense, after he had indulged in riches and privilege at the expense of others. But the worst result of Madoff's life sentence is that he becomes the face of the circa-2008 financial tsunami – and that he doesn't deserve, even if he deserves to rot behind bars. What Bernie Madoff really needs is company, and lots of it. And not just from those who must surely have helped him – since no-one could carry out such a massive fraud for so many years without substantial assitance. He should have company from the overseers of the fraud perpetrated by Wall Street's most famous names, on a trillion-dollar scale that dwarfs even Madoff's fraud. Indeed, a 150 year sentence for Madoff verges on the heavy-handed, and not just compared to other crimes (Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, also pleaded guily and got imprisonment without parole – but he killed people). Skilling, the mastermind behind the house of mirrors that was Enron, received a sentence of only 24 years in jail, and that was after pleading not guilty. (Skilling is still appealing his sentence, although his conviction has been reaffirmed by the US court of appeals.) So what makes Madoff worse, apart from the size of his fraud? According to the judge who sentenced Madoff, the length partly reflects the fact that no friends, colleagues or family members were willing to give character references for Bernie to the court. But that's hardly a surprise, since they want to be as far away from the whole business as possible. Feel free to speculate in your own mind as to why that might be. And that is the difference between Madoff and Skilling: the Enron chief executive was one of several running the company who were tried and convicted, spreading the blame and the retribution. But by allowing the blame to fall on Madoff – who made a billion-dollar understatement in court when he referred to his fraud as "an error of judgment" – lets many more people off the hook. When the compilation clips of the 2008 financial crisis news-reel runs in the future, as it surely will, the face of Bernie Madoff alone can't be allowed to personify the scale of the disaster. Madoff profited from it, to be sure. But he was the scavenger who picked over the bones left behind by the crazy-money operations run elsewhere. Sadly for Bernie Madoff, his fraud was straight forward: he stole money from investors and ran a Ponzi scheme. (His particular genius was not to promise fantastic, overnight profits, as is usually the way. Instead he offered solid long-term returns, less likely to attract attention.) But if he'd really been smart he would have got into selling collatoralised debt obligations, credit default swaps, mezzanine level revolving syndicated loans, tulip futures and all the rest. Then, if he'd really got lucky, he'd have got a bailout. [ www.commondreams.org ] |
| I'm feeling no sleep till tuesda right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» basdini replied on Tue Jun 30, 2009 @ 5:01pm |
| Coolness: 145940 | honestly dudes the whole economic crisis is bullshit
it was contrived by wall street to engineer the massive bailout and the subsequent lunatic money supply expansion. don't you understand it's all about derivatives...there is not enough money in all of the world to pay them back there is going to be hyper inflation starting in the fall the people who caused the crisis are now running the white house (Tim Geitner and Larry Summers to name just a few) anybody who is not prepared for whats about to happen is going to get what they deserve... |
| I'm feeling surly right now.. | |
150 Ans De Prison Pour Madoff
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