From the RampartsJunious Ricardo StantonBernie Madoff, Vince Fumo and Wayne Bryant“For his efforts Mr. Madoff received 150 years in prison, a ludicrous sentence under the circumstances. The nature of his trial was unusual. No media coverage, no attempt to charge any co-conspirators and no effort that we are aware of to recover funds, except for a billion here and a billion there. You don’t run a scheme like this out of your back pocket. Many on Wall Street knew what was going on and scores of others were involved. In the case of following the money all the court has to do is check with the NY Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department, both of which have access to every money wire out of his company and the banks he used. That would be too easy or is the avenue deliberately not being pursued. Then there is the case of the SEC, which knew for years a scam was being perpetrated. They were served up proof positive of a scam and did nothing to stop it. That tells us higher up in government they were told hands off, look the other way. The whole episode stinks, just like BCCI, Iran-Contra and Nugan-Hand, all CIA scam operations.” http://www.theinternationalforecaster.co...Looking at the US astute and deep thinking persons can readily see this country is imploding, sinking fast morally, intellectually as well as financially. We see massive disparities in the administration of so called justice where, race, economic status and social/political connections play an enormous role in the decisions the various courts render on a daily basis. For example Bernie Lawrence Madoff a Wall Street insider who was so well connected and influential in the economic hierarchy he once served as chairman of the NASDAQ Stock Exchange, turned himself in to authorities saying he defrauded hundreds or people. After much media scrutiny into his life but a virtual black out of the investigation into his activities and how he did it, Bernie Madoff was sentenced to one hundred fifty years in prison!Rob Chapman who publishes an extremely accurate and informative newsletter called The International Forecaster pointed out a major anomaly in Madoff’s subsequent trial and sentencing: one of the charges not levied against Madoff by the US government was conspiracy. This means the federal authorities never even entertained the idea Madoff was working with someone else. Conspiracy is routinely charged in most crimes even the most mundane. I fact, I was a probation officer for over thirty years and I can count on one hand the times a police report did not include at least one count of conspiracy no matter what the other charges were. Yet in a case like Madoff’s which essentially was a major financial rip off, an international money laundering and fraud operation in the tune of over fifty billion dollars involving individuals, companies, retirement and hedge funds, FBI investigators, the people from the SEC and other agencies supposedly never asked Madoff if he was in it with anyone else?!! Chapman pointed out, “Mr. Madoff was convicted on 11 criminal charges – none of which included conspiracy. In other words, who assisted you in your criminal acts? Strangely the court had no interest in uncovering who else was involved. Thus far only a few billion dollars have been recovered. The only reason Mr. Madoff turned himself in and pleaded guilty to all 11 counts of criminal activity was to protect his co-conspirators by not having to testify and government willingly allowed that. Mr. Madoff kept insisting he acted alone. After 28 years on Wall Street we ca hardly believe that. None of his family was charged, yet they had to know what was going on. There are just too many unanswered questions that government and Wall Street have been all too willing to sweep under the rug.” International Forecaster Weekly July 23, 2009 Mr Chapman is a former Wall Street trader and an intelligence operative, so he knows there is something amiss, something larger being covered up here.Contrast Madoff’s sentence with those given to Pennsylvania State Senator Vince Fumo and New Jersey State Senator Wayne Bryant. Both Fumo and Bryant rose within their respective legislative bodies to wield great influence over the purse-strings of their states. Both were charged with inappropriate behavior by the Feds, both were subsequently found guilty amidst very public and politically charged trials. Fumo was convicted on one hundred and thirty seven counts of charges as wide ranging as defrauding the Pennsylvania. State Senate, defrauding two non-profit organizations, fraud, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy. Bryant was found guilty of eleven counts of bribery, pension fraud, conspiracy and influence peddling. Both Fumo and Bryant, unlike Madoff were charged with conspiracy and their co-conspirators were also found guilty. But their co-conspirators received less jail time than Fumo and Bryant. Vince Fumo was sentenced to fifty-five months in Federal jail and Wayne Bryant four years.Madoff was running a gargantuan Ponzi scheme that bilked hundreds if not thousands of people out of their savings worth billions of dollars. No one knows where the money is or how it was used. The US authorities never bothered to ask or track it down. One man supposedly working all by himself, (like the government’s sham version of the lone gunmen involved in the President Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr and Robert Kennedy assassinations) pulled it off all by his lonesome. In a case like that, don’t you think it would be logical the US government would at least investigate whether or not Madoff had at least some help, or if he was involved with others, especially since the SEC had been warned about him for years?!! The SEC standing down, not following up on numerous written warnings about Madoff is another question/issue altogether, but for a later time. Why didn’t the corporate media dog the Bu$h administration and SEC about that? I guess that wasn’t important enough question to be raised.Unlike Madoff, Fumo and Bryant were charged with conspiracy. The government alleged they had co-conspirators and the government’s case against both of them hinged on evidence of the direct involvement of these co-conspirators. Don’t you find it odd that the FBI and US Attorneys didn’t bother to look deeper into Madoff’s affairs? Let me get this straight, Fumo and Bryant sold out their constituents’ trust for chump change using co-conspirators yet Bernie Madoff supposedly stole over fifty billion dollars that the US government knows about and reported (it could be more) all by himself ? What’s more fishy is, the US government never bothered to check to see if others were involved; they simply took Madoff’s word for it and closed the case!The three cases were handled very differently in and by the media. For the Fumo and Bryant cases, the media was all in their business. Every detail, all the minutia was put out there from jump street to paint a picture of corruption and taint any potential jury pool members against the two men. When the stuff hit the fan the media never balanced the picture with stories or side bar coverage about any good the men did. The Feds literally tried their cases in the media which is an old COINTELPRO ploy. The media took it and ran. It provided good copy. The local Jersey papers seemed to take pleasure and glee in Bryant’s demise. There was so much exposure and leaks about evidence etc. The reader comments attached to the Bryant stories were always recriminatory never wait and see. I’m surprised the defense didn’t raise that as an issue.With Madoff very little was said in the press about how his supposed one man operation worked or all the intricate details of where the money went. It was if the Feds were forced to prosecute only because Maddof turned himself in. There was no all out investigation, forensic or otherwise by the FBI, SEC or US Attorneys offices to determine how he pulled off the scams or most importantly where the money went?All of three men are miscreants but it seems to me although Madoff was sentenced to one hundred and fifty years in jail, he was merely a fall guy, a patsy and scapegoat to cover up a much larger, systemic pattern of fraud and criminality. In prison he is getting props for not rolling over on anyone else. It’s like the Savings and Loan and Enron scandals where only few guys went to jail and the rest got off Scott free!From my perspective, in the mind of the ruling elites, Madoff’s real crime was he brought unwanted attention on himself . As an investment broker at a time when the economy is in free fall caused by thousands of people on Wall Street just like him doing the same things, admitting he was running a con game and fraud scam was a major no no. So the Feds kept everything hush hush and threw the book at him to prevent further damage and exposure about the rampant fraud and corruption within the financial system.This certainly doesn’t excuse Fumo and Bryant. They were skilled players in a morally bankrupt political system/game just as Madoff was in the financial arena. They all fell prey to the temptations, twisted values and mentality of entitlement, exceptionalism and greed currently metastasizing throughout this society. This mind-set permeates Wall Street and all levels and branches of government. But there is a not so subtle message here, a message of selective prosecution and sentencing. Keep in mind the SEC had been warned several times over the years about Bernie Madoff and they chose to ignore it. The lesson seems to be, when you mess with rich people’s money , or more importantly if you bring unwanted scrutiny and exposure on their economic Ponzi machine, you jeopardize their whole game, the government will mobilize to kick you to the curb in a New York minute.There is another message in the Fumo and Bryant cases: if you aren’t a Blue Blood (like Neil Bu$h for example) or of a certain ethnic group the government will make an example of you. If you are skilled at violating the public trust, you use your office to rob from the public till and you feather your own nest by stealing from the little people, the people the ruling oligarches don’t think count for anything, if you are a member of the “opposition party” they go after you. If you are convicted, and you were really powerful, you get a slap on the wrist.-30-

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  • NYMetro
    WOW! Thanks for prodding us to rethink the entire Madoff situation. There has always been "talk" about his sons being involved and Madoff taking the blame. I would not be surprised if there is a connection between some foreign nation and money laundering in this situation. Where is the money? There are alot of people that know and are choosing not to say for various reasons, one of which is most likely fear.

    Iran-Contra, BCCI, Enron and now the Madoff scam. Stay tuned for the next US monetary scandal.
    • How could his sons not know what was going on all those years?! If I were a betting person I would bet Israel was deeply involved in this and much of the money was funneled there. That country and its state side operatives have been involved in so much intrigue it's a shame. On September 10, 2001 Donald Rumsfeld called a press conference to inform that 2.3 trillion (that's trillion with a T) was missing from the Department of Defense and this was before the invasion of Iraq, all the no bid contracts and pallots of US money that disapeared in Iraq!
      Stay strong!
      Junious
      • NYMetro
        I too believe that Israel is the country involved. Most people believe that because he and the people he ripped off are Jewish that that could not be the case. I beg to differ. Interesting about Rumsfield. Where is the press on that?
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