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Judge Lets Madoff Stay Free On Bail
A judge has ruled that against revoking Bernard Madoff's bail, meaning the disgraced investment advisor will get to stay in his $7 million Upper East Side apartment -- albeit under house arrest and 24-hr surveillance -- while awaiting trial.
Prosecutors had argued that Madoff should be sent to jail, after he mailed more than $1 million worth of personal items, including gold necklaces and watches, to family and friends, contravening a court order freezing Madoff's assets.
Madoff's lawyers contended that he simply didn't realize that mailing the items would contravene the order.
CNBC adds:
A court hearing tentatively scheduled for Monday on the criminal charges against Madoff has been adjourned for 30 days, his lawyers said.
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Josh
Zachary
It looks like Madoff hasn't learned a damn thing, but neither has the judge. Look for him to make his get away real soon.
January 12, 2009 12:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
What do you mean he didn't learn anything? He has learned, and the judge has shown, that the rich / formerly rich are subject to a different legal system than a citizen.
January 12, 2009 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is this Madoff "non-investigation" going to be another Kenny-boy, Enron-like, purposely-inept courtroom proceedings - because he has a lot of "political friends" in high places?
Who is this possibly inept US Attorney, Eric Litt - who botched sending Madoff to Jail today.
"“The court finds that the government has failed to meet its burden to either ground,” the ruling said."
Is it true that his bail conditions "Mr. Madoff’s $10 million bail, secured by various family homes held in his wife’s name," - may not be enforceable if he skipped - because they are in his wife's name? They are non-recoverable by the Feds - but could be in the civil suit by his investors?
Something funny about this "case" not being prosecuted vigorously.
January 12, 2009 1:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
That funny thing you sense is the grease that Madoff has applied to all of NY's government. Chucky Schumer is probably consoling him right now.e
January 12, 2009 1:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
There are still two more steps required to meet the Enron standard:
1) A conviction
2) A faked death
January 12, 2009 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
i am sooo totally expecting #2,
January 12, 2009 7:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obviously, the judge has none of his own money invested with Madoff.
January 12, 2009 1:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obviously.
January 12, 2009 3:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Two standards for justice: one for the poor and another for the rich. SSDD.
January 12, 2009 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
The legal explanation I heard earlier is:
Madoff got the agreement to be out on bail because he was willing to cooperate with the investigation. Fairly important issue since he was the only person in the know. Realistically, if you put him under the stress of incaceration, his memory will suffer. I'm pretty sure he is under house arrest, leg thingy, etc.
The hearing today could only consider whether he had violated the terms of his bail versus jail agreement or if he is any danger to society. He isn't a violent criminal and his ability to do anymore financial crime is pretty much impossible.
Law is a rather bizarre way of looking at crime and punishment. According to several books out now, the whole system needs to be reconsidered and reinvented based on new information about how the human brain works. Most of which is very different from the religious and science concepts it has been based on.
January 12, 2009 3:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
They ar probably hoping he will take the hint and jump already.
George Carlin used to tell a joke something like this. There was good news from the bankrupt business. They reported that they had lost the money. GOOD NEWS! Then we can find it!
Another similar quip. A Coast Guard Rep during the Exxon Valdez oil Spill stated that if the Coast Guard sprayed dispersents on the water from their C-130s, the oil spill would go away. A reporter then asked, "Where is away?"
I'm just sayin'.
January 12, 2009 3:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis is just another in a long line of whores (Magistrate Judge Theodore H. Katz, Judge Louis Stanton )who allow the rich to continue to screw all the people who were swindled of their money by this piece of garbage, by not putting this criminal behind bars!.
If this were John Q. Public he would most certainly be in jail with the rest of the Riff-Raff. No, it’s not a Ponzi scheme bur a “Madoff scheme” and the news, newspapers, television stations and journalists should start calling it that!
Record this name in history, to shame anyone in the family and future generations of this pile of trash.
January 13, 2009 1:40 AM | Reply | Permalink