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Wednesday 11 March 2009

Madoff's plea bargain shows he can't do his sums

Bernard Madoff (remember him?), will probably plead guilty today to 11 federal felony charges, to reduce the likely sentance from the possible 150 years that eould put him in prison for the rest of his life.

Mr Madoff, 70, however, has not reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors investigating in his self-confessed $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

The guy is clearly inept. Any fool can see that a plea bargain reducing his sentence to perhaps 50 years increases his chances of release during his lifetime from 0.0000 ... 001% to say 0.5%, but he has to have a better than 1% chance of getting off on a technicality. Better to spend the money on a good lawyer now.

On the other hand, he may not fancy the lawsuits that would be coming his way if he did walk free.

And on the other other hand, by pleading guilty, he doesn't have to answer any questions about where the money went.

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