Why Madoff Belongs in Guantanamo Bay
67Charles Ponzi Mugshot
The Original Ponzi Scheme
Charles Ponzi was one of the greatest swindlers in American history and as such it is fitting that his name is forever tied to a specific type of pyramid scheme that pays early investors returns from the investments of later investors. The scheme works as long as new investors keep bringing in the cash and in order to attract these investors, Ponzi promised clients a 50% profit within 45 days and a 100% profit in 90 days. Ponzi convinced mostly fellow Italian Americans in the Boston area, that he could buy discounted postal reply coupons in other countries and sell them in the US at face value to make a profit. Unfortunately for his investors, he was doing no such thing.
Charles Ponzi was born in 1882 and immigrated to the United States from Italy in 1903. Having gambled away his life savings on the voyage, he arrived in Boston with $2.50 in his pocket. He worked odd jobs, learned English and got fired from a position as a waiter because he was stealing and shortchanging the customers.
In 1907 he moved to Montreal, Quebec and became a teller at a newly opened bank that served the Italian immigrant community. Despite being in serious financial trouble, the bank paid double the normal rate of interest to its depositors. It was able to do this by using money from new accounts to pay interest on old accounts. This was the first time Ponzi witnessed the operation of the pyramid scheme that would be named after him. Eventually the bank failed and its president escaped to Mexico with most of the bank’s funds. Ponzi was caught forging a check and was sent to prison for three years. He then returned to the United States and was again apprehended for his involvement in a scheme to smuggle illegal immigrants. He spent another two years in prison in Atlanta. There he met Charles W. Morse, a wealthy Wall Street businessman and banking mogul who had been convicted of violating federal banking laws for manipulating stocks and causing massive financial troubles leading to the “Panic of 1907.” Morse’s unethical practices and the resulting turmoil they caused are an almost eerie foreshadowing of Madoff’s. Ponzi saw Morse as a role model and, upon his release he made his way back to Boston determined to strike it rich any way he could.
Ponzi came up with an idea to sell business listings but failed to sell his idea and his company quickly folded. Several weeks later, he received a letter from a company in Spain asking for more information about his business. The letter included an international reply coupon and this sparked Ponzi’s imagination. If one could buy a massive amount of these coupons in a foreign country with highly devalued currency, as was the case in Italy following WWI, these coupons could be exchanged for postage in the US and sold at face value. Ponzi based his business model on this theoretical way to make easy money and began recruiting investors in early 1920. Initial investments with him were wildly successful and word spread. Investments were pouring in and within several months, Ponzi had made millions and was living the high life in an air conditioned mansion with a heated swimming pool.
Eventually suspicion began to build. State officials as well as the Boston Post began to investigate Ponzi’s business practices and by the summer of 1920 his scheme collapsed after federal agents raided his company headquarters and shut it down. Ponzi was arrested and served 5 years for federal charges and an additional 9 years for state charges.
Upon is release in 1934, he was deported to Italy and finally ended up in Brazil where he died in a charity hospital, blind in one eye and partially paralyzed in 1948. To the end he failed to show remorse for the 17,000 people he’d defrauded of their life savings stating in an interview shortly before his death that “Even if they never got anything for it, it was cheap at that price. Without malice aforethought I had given them the best show that was ever staged in their territory since the landing of the Pilgrims! It was easily worth fifteen million bucks to watch me put the thing over!”
An Angry Rant By An Angry American
I'm not a proponent of the death penalty by any stretch of the imagination, but someone like Bernard Madoff should have the decency to just off himself. Of course this is a catch-22 since we know that the man must not have a single shred of decency to go around with that smartass smirk on his face, apologizing to neighbors in his fancy New York apartment "for the inconvenience" that reporters are causing after having practically orchestrated the collapse of the world economy. I'm sure even if he did kill himself it would be in the same arrogant way he's led his whole life. Witness that Frenchman, chief executive officer of Access International Advisors, Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet, who did have the decency to commit suicide after having practically ruined all of his family and friends because he didn't bother to check Madoff's books. Oh yes, this French nobleman (read: descended from a family that has spent generations exploiting others) took the "honorable" way out, which may have been the right thing to do but the way he did it smacks of the same arrogance and snobbery that got him in trouble in the first place. Want to kill yourself? Have the decency to do it in the privacy of your home, not slitting your writs in your office after hours like you're some Roman aristocrat. That's a real nice "eff you" to the poor shmuck who has to clean it up in the morning. What a jackass.
But, I digress. If Madoff doesn't have the decency to shoot himself in the face, then why is he not already wearing an orange jumpsuit and having nightmares about the showers (since we all know that's the real punishment)? I know that if I stole a measly $50 from some rich old bag on the street, that's exactly the position that I would be in. This man stole $50 BILLION! And he gets to be under house arrest in his swanky New York apartment while the US government insists on making young children orphans by sending both their parents to jail if caught with some marijuana? What sort of justice is that? Not only that, but how come we don't know who Madoff's early investors were? Weren't they the ones who profited at the expense of everyone who invested later? Isn't it possible that these investors knew the game all along and are just as guilty as Madoff himself? At the very least they should be forced to give it all back. This entire situation is a farce reminding me of Dave Chappelle's skit about the two legal systems in America, where a white collar criminal is treated the way a drug dealer would be treated and vice versa ("You may be a crack dealer but you've done a lot of good for the community..."). The whole thing is nuts! In my opinion, Madoff doesn't just deserve a severe ass pounding, he should be locked up in Guantanamo Bay!
Now that Obama is president (thank the good Lord that the Bush nightmare has finally ended), he plans to close the facility and I would agree. It's illegal and full of people who were shooting at a foreign power that had invaded their country (one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist). But why waste this perfectly good space? It's just the place to hold Madoff and his like-minded cronies before charging them (after an indefinite amount of time of course) with treason as well as fraud. Treason? Yes, treason. Let me tell you why. The Constitutional definition of treason is as follows: Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.
Here is the situation, people, whether you agree with it or not, this is a country based on capitalism, now more than ever, the very fabric of our society and our government is irrevocably tied to the markets. When someone tampers with those markets illegally, that person is in fact tampering with the very base of our entire society and that person is therefore guilty of treason. Madoff was waging economic war against the United States in order to satisfy his vicious and bottomless greed. A side effect of this man's greed, and that of ALL of his investors, is a complete destabilization of the US economy and, in turn, a weakening of the state. If that's not treason, I don't know what is.
And another thing, I'm sick of hearing about all the poor investors who lost a bunch of money. Boo hoo for a bunch of spoiled rich pricks who got just what they deserved. Everyone knew something was up with Madoff, there was no way to hide it. People continued to invest because they assumed that he was ripping off someone else in order to make their already rich asses even richer. Nice going dipshits. So let's not have any hurl-worthy Linda Lay tearjerker moments, okay?
And for the record, I don't feel bad for so-called "charities" that lost it all. I'm sorry, but since when does "nonprofit" mean that you make huge sums of money and have a bunch of investments with shady people like Madoff? I don't care what you use it for, its how you got the money that counts. Once you've stepped on enough people and clawed your way to the top (ehem, Bill Gates), it's pretty freaking easy to toss some crumbs to the rest of us for the glorification of your massive ego via a "charity" or "foundation". Blow it out your ass 'cause I'm not buying it.
What's unfair is that the current lack of confidence in the economic system, a direct result of not only Madoff and friends, but all of the corrupt, greedy and selfish higher ups that drove their own businesses to the ground and then expect the taxpayer to pick up the pieces all the while still giving themselves obscene bonuses, means that millions of regular Americans are going to suffer. Where is our bailout? What the hell is our government doing? And yes, change is upon us, yes very good; however these things don't change so quickly and I'll venture to ask if change within our current system is even possible? If our society rewards most those who have the least amount of empathy for other human beings, and zero shame to boot, it does not bode well for our future as a nation.
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Yeah, I mean, as you can tell this really burns me up and I've really lost total faith in the system. It's time for a revolution.
Awesome!!
EYEAM4ANARCHY 3 years ago
It's amazing that if one of those people he swindled stole a two dollar candy bar at the local convenience store because they were hungry, they would be in jail, at the very least, until they went to trial. But this guy is sitting around his luxury apartment figuring out ways to stash his ill-gotten assets.