Today marks a historic moment for the financial world as Bernie Madoff, fraudster of the world's largest Ponzi scheme (over$60B) plead guilty to the 11 charges brought against him including securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering. The 70 year old Madoff is seen below entering the Manhattan courthouse where he inevitably faced his death sentence.
Madoff's guilty plea to all charges comes as no surprise the scope of his scheme has affected investors of all types from the local blue collar worker to charitable foundations and even celebrities such as Steven Spielberg and Kevin Bacon. Madoff expressed deep regret as he read his 10 minute apology stating, "he was so deeply sorry and ashamed" for his role as mastermind behind the largest Wall Street scheme in history.
When all is said and done, Madoff defrauded almost 4500 investors out of over $64B US worth of assets. His guilty pleas only confirm that he will likely parish into history behind bars as his charges total over 150 years in prison. As a result, we should all take the story of Bernie Madoff as a lesson learned and remember "if it's too good to be true, it probably is."
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