steal $60 million in ponzi scheme,get probation

[Algorem]

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/02/alan_schneider_who_admitted_he.html#comments

Alan Schneider, who admitted helping steal $60 million from investors, gets probation



...Investors who had urged Gallagher to take a stand against white-collar crime complained that the system failed and left no option but street justice. One told others she knew where Schneider lives and gave the address.

Cynthia Glenn, who told the court that she believed stress from the case had caused the heart attacks that killed her husband, sat with her mouth open, asking over and over if she had heard the sentence properly...




The sentence brought the second gasp from victims during the session. The first came when Gallagher noted Bishops Roger Gries and James Quinn, from the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, wrote on Schneider's behalf...


Cleveland police officer James Simone, known as "Supercop," came to court to speak on behalf of Schneider, but Gallagher did not allow it. Simone said afterward that he was a friend of the Schneider family...

COMMENTS (102)

[tekisui]

1. I want mandatory minimums for white-collar crimes.

Or none for drug possessions.

[acmavm]

2. I wonder if one of the 'investors' might try for a little justice on his/her own?

This is unbelievable.

[customerserviceguy]

3. Why do you think Bernie Madoff

is on "pent" house arrest? He's likely footing the bill for his own security, the likes of which the government could not possibly afford.

[acmavm]

4. Bernie is so old he might just croak before he gets out of his 'prison'. And

that is NOT a hardship. None of us would ever be treated this way. But these other guys, they got some time left on this Earth. I sure would sleep with one eye open if I were them.

One of the biggest 'laughs' this whole Madoff thing has provided is after he got busted, it was like someone punched a hole in the fraud/pyramid dike. They just started coming out of the woodwork.

I wonder if there's some MASTER scammer somewhere that's taken all their money. All except for what the government is printing as fast as it can so that we can start paying off their debts.

[customerserviceguy]

5. I have a feeling that Bernie will never see the inside of a prison

I'm willing to bet that he's received one of those "you have one year left to live" diagnoses, and that's why he instructed his sons to turn him in, that way they'd be in the clear for the ill-gotten gains he's passed along to them.

It's very easy to drag the legal process out if you have enough money for high priced lawyers, Bernie found a way to keep his stolen wealth within his family.

[DoctorMyEyes]

6. Good that he wasn't a purse snatcher

making off with a days worth of carrying cash. Or a common thief carrying off a fully insured TV in the middle of the night. Ripping people off like that could have earned him some time behind bars.

[varkam]

7. Strangely enough, I don't see Thomas going for it.

I could very well be wrong, but my initial thought is that Thomas will be opposed to trashing the exclusionary rule.