RIP

[kriesel]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

Bernie Madoff

"I’ve served 11 years already, and, quite frankly, I’ve suffered through it.” Oh boo hoo. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/b...doff-dead.html

Deserved every second of his 150 year sentence, or a firing squad aiming at the extremities, in my opinion.
May his long running selfish treachery never be approximated in the private sector again.
There were 37,000 victims of his fraud https://www.biography.com/news/berni...famous-victims including Eli Wiesel and wife and foundation.

Describing Madoff as "one of the greatest scoundrels, thieves, liars, criminals," Wiesel and his wife, Marion, had lost their life savings of $12 million, along with $15 million from their nonprofit organization, Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by kriesel

"I’ve served 11 years already, and, quite frankly, I’ve suffered through it.” Oh boo hoo. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/b...doff-dead.html

Deserved every second of his 150 year sentence, or a firing squad aiming at the extremities, in my opinion.
May his long running selfish treachery never be approximated in the private sector again.
There were 37,000 victims of his fraud https://www.biography.com/news/berni...famous-victims including Eli Wiesel and wife and foundation.

Rule of thumb: if the promised returns from an investment sound too good to be true, they probably are.

I've relatively little sympathy for the old and greedy.

[kriesel]

Originally Posted by xilman

Rule of thumb: if the promised returns from an investment sound too good to be true, they probably are.

I've relatively little sympathy for the old and greedy.

It's a class of crime called affinity fraud, using group membership and other aspects of human nature against the victims for personal gain. Madoff's crimes (and the several associates also convicted) are thought to have been carried out over decades (with estimates ranging from 1964 to 1991 as the beginning) and evaded detection by multiple SEC investigations along the way, despite multiple indicators that what he claimed to be accomplishing could be shown by a sufficiently knowledgable person to be impossible. He was well connected professionally and politically, which probably provided significant protection from effective investigation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affinity_fraud
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Madoff

I remember still a coworker encouraging me to invest in Enron, and replying something didn't seem right there, about a year or two before that fraud fell apart. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron_scandal

[Dr Sardonicus]

I have more sympathy than some for Madoff's victims. Most people aren't investment experts - that's why they rely on advisors. Assuming his victims had checked on Madoff's reputation and record before entrusting him with their money, what would they have found? That he had a good reputation and a record of delivering on his promises.

There was a TV miniseries about Madoff's crimes around 5 years ago (based on a book about his career IIRC). It portrayed the SEC "investigations" into his dealings as comically inept at best. For example, the SEC guys left their briefcases - unlocked - in Madoff's offices overnight. So Madoff and his henchmen merely had to open the briefcases, find the questions the SEC was going to ask, and prepare accordingly.

After the SEC "investigation" was done, Madoff could truthfully claim that the SEC had looked into his dealings, and found nothing amiss. I would be inclined to judge the folks at the SEC more harshly as accessories, if not accomplices to Madoff's crimes, than I would his victims for trusting him.

As a measure of the dishonor Bernie Madoff brought on his family, in 2010, on the second anniversary of his arrest, his son Mark committed suicide.

His son Andrew died of cancer four years later.

As far as I can tell, both their estates are still tied up in litigation due to Bernie Madoff's swindles. Even though neither son was involved in his crimes, victims are suing their estates, probably based on the idea that they contain some of their father's ill-gotten gains.

[xilman]

Helen McCrory: Peaky Blinders actress dies aged 52, husband Damian Lewis says
Helen McCrory

[Dr Sardonicus]

Retired Ohio sheriff and tiny K-9 partner die the same day

CLEVELAND (AP) - The Ohio county sheriff and his tiny police dog were inseparable, their lives unwaveringly intertwined.

It thus seems fitting that retired Geauga County Sheriff Dan McClelland, 67, and his crime-fighting partner Midge, 16, would both die on Wednesday — McClelland, at a hospital after a lengthy battle with cancer and Midge, a few hours later at home, perhaps of a broken heart.

McClelland retired at the end of 2016 after 13 years as sheriff in this semi-rural county east of Cleveland. He spent 44 years total with the Geauga County Sheriff's Office and a decade alongside Midge, a drug-sniffing Chihuahua-rat terrier mix certified by Guinness World Records in 2006 as the smallest police dog on the globe.
<snip>

[Dr Sardonicus]

Walter Mondale, Carter's vice president, dies at 93

Mondale's own try for the White House, in 1984, came at the zenith of Ronald Reagan's popularity. His selection of Rep. Geraldine Ferraro of New York as his running mate made him the first major-party presidential nominee to put a woman on the ticket, but his declaration that he would raise taxes helped define the race.

[Dr Sardonicus]

The report cited in this post that said Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick was hit on the head with a fire extinguisher proved to be wrong. There was no evidence of blunt-force trauma.

This April 19 US Capitol Police press release accepts the DC Chief Medical Examiner's findings that Officer Sicknick died of natural causes (he suffered two strokes).

Two men are up on charges of assaulting Officer Sicknick by spraying him with a chemical irritant.

[xilman]

Michael Collins, Apollo XI

https://twitter.com/AstroMCollins/st...38495040348168

[Xyzzy]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56925999

[PhilF]

Johnny Crawford, the child actor who played the son on The Rifleman.