\u201cJudge, I am ashamed of my conduct,\u201d he said during trial. \u201cI wish I would have been caught sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Financial Fraud: The Wide Variance in Judicial Sentencing<\/strong><\/p>\nFraudsters and money go together like peanut butter and jelly, but how their legal punishments are doled out seems to vary enormously. We take a look here at a few of the most infamous in recent American history, and who got a lifetime vs. less time vs. much less time.<\/p>\n
Bernie Madoff<\/strong><\/p>\nBernie Madoff was one of America\u2019s top stockbrokers, investment advisers, and financiers until it turned out that the asset management unit of his firm was nothing but a monumental Ponzi scheme. He has the dubious honor of having masterminded the biggest financial fraud in US history, amounting, when all said and done, to the theft of almost $65 billion, including from nonprofits and seniors.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/strong>Sentence: 150 years<\/p>\nScott Rothstein<\/strong><\/p>\nScott Rothstein was a high-flying, ostentatious Florida lawyer, philanthropist, and political donor. He was also one of the biggest Ponzi scheme operators in history, conning investors out of $1.2 billion to fund his ostentatious and over-the-top lifestyle.<\/p>\n
Sentence: 50 Years<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/strong>Nick Leeson<\/strong><\/p>\nLeeson was a \u201crogue\u201d derivatives trader whose fraudulent, reckless stock market maneuvering resulted in $1.4 billion in losses. His actions reportedly triggered the collapse of Barings, Britain\u2019s oldest merchant bank. He was the subject of a 1999 movie, Rogue Trader<\/em>, starring Ewan McGregor.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/strong>Sentence: \u00a0Six-and-a-half years<\/p>\nJordan Belfort<\/strong><\/p>\nIn 1999, Jordan Belfort pled guilty to stock market manipulation and running a penny-stock scam. His rise to wealth was immortalized by Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese\u2019s The Wolf of Wall Street<\/em>. He is now a motivational speaker.<\/p>\nSentence: 22 months<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former JPMorgan Chase broker Michael Oppenheim, who spent over $22 million of his clients\u2019 money chasing his gambling losses, was sentenced to just five years in prison by a US District Judge this week. Judge Analisa Torres went easy on the defendant in the light of his apparent remorse and determination to battle his gambling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":34293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,10,13],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
JPMorgan Gambling Addict Broker Gets Just Five Years for $22 Million Embezzlement<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n