We’ve come a long way from the days when cattle rustlers found their punishment at the end of a hangman’s noose, but for somebody like Bernie Madoff, the ponzi-scheme operator who bilked investors, charities and philanthropic foundations out of 65+ billion dollars, that’s probably small consolation. Madoff received a 150 year sentence for his fraudulent activities and will spend the rest of his days behind the iron bars of a federal penitentiary. Only his charred ashes will taste freedom, and only then within the confines of a metal urn. If he’s lucky, one of Mr. Madoff’s relatives will have enough money to pay for his cremains and set them free somewhere, perhaps near one of his million dollar mansions.
Still, Madoff can count his blessings. He can still breathe, eat at the hands of taxpayers, read the Wall Street Journal, ponder over the direction of the NASDAC and cling to the hope that an appeal of his sentence will lead to a reduction of his jail time. Cattle rustlers were seldom that lucky!
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