London: Norma Hill broke down in tears in the courtroom on Monday when Judge Denny Chin recounted the letter that she had sent to him, vividly describing how Bernard Madoff put his arm around her 21 years ago and said her money would be safe.
Her husband had died recently and the mother of five invested the rest of her savings with Madoff.
"If I in some small way helped influence him [the judge] in his very courageous decision, then I fulfilled the first step of my job," said Hill, of Armonk, New York, after the sentencing.
In spite of receiving 150 years, the maximum possible punishment, Madoff was hardly forgiven.
While his sentence satisfied the hopes of those who lost their savings to his scam, deep anger remained. Maureen Ebel, a widow who now must work three jobs, said that when she saw Madoff in the courtroom she wanted to throw darts at him and that when he turned and apologised to his victims it was meaningless.
After Madoff was told he would never leave prison again, his victims displayed emotions ranging from relief to disregard for the disgraced financier.
They began to direct their ire at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Securities Investor Protection Committee, who were responsible for protecting investors.
Hill said that her next job was to get the SEC to acknowledge that they were "asleep at the switch" and offer Madoff investors restitution.
Meanwhile, dozens of other investors gathered under the scalding sun, minutes after the decision, holding white signs reading "SIPC=SCAM" and "Where was the SEC?"
"I consider Madoff irrelevant," said Richard Friedman, a New York accountant who lost most of his savings to Madoff. "What purpose does it serve to belabour the point?"
In France, Karine Vilret-Huot, a lawyer representing a number of French investors, said her clients "are frustrated at the lack of trial which means they will never know why he did it and who else may have helped him - it's unthinkable that he acted alone".
She added: "Investors would also have liked Madoff to have been instructed to reimburse their money, however improbable that might actually be."
The sentiment was similar in Spain, where clients of Santander's Optimal Investment Services fund of hedge funds management unit had 2.3 billion euros (Dh11.93 billion) of exposure to the fraud. Investors tended to be more focused on whether they could recover money.
Her husband had died recently and the mother of five invested the rest of her savings with Madoff.
"If I in some small way helped influence him [the judge] in his very courageous decision, then I fulfilled the first step of my job," said Hill, of Armonk, New York, after the sentencing.
In spite of receiving 150 years, the maximum possible punishment, Madoff was hardly forgiven.
While his sentence satisfied the hopes of those who lost their savings to his scam, deep anger remained. Maureen Ebel, a widow who now must work three jobs, said that when she saw Madoff in the courtroom she wanted to throw darts at him and that when he turned and apologised to his victims it was meaningless.
After Madoff was told he would never leave prison again, his victims displayed emotions ranging from relief to disregard for the disgraced financier.
They began to direct their ire at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Securities Investor Protection Committee, who were responsible for protecting investors.
Hill said that her next job was to get the SEC to acknowledge that they were "asleep at the switch" and offer Madoff investors restitution.
Meanwhile, dozens of other investors gathered under the scalding sun, minutes after the decision, holding white signs reading "SIPC=SCAM" and "Where was the SEC?"
"I consider Madoff irrelevant," said Richard Friedman, a New York accountant who lost most of his savings to Madoff. "What purpose does it serve to belabour the point?"
In France, Karine Vilret-Huot, a lawyer representing a number of French investors, said her clients "are frustrated at the lack of trial which means they will never know why he did it and who else may have helped him - it's unthinkable that he acted alone".
She added: "Investors would also have liked Madoff to have been instructed to reimburse their money, however improbable that might actually be."
The sentiment was similar in Spain, where clients of Santander's Optimal Investment Services fund of hedge funds management unit had 2.3 billion euros (Dh11.93 billion) of exposure to the fraud. Investors tended to be more focused on whether they could recover money.
Tags:
Media