Life without parole would have been better……..

Disgraced fund manger Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison Monday for masterminding one of the largest Ponzi schemes in U.S. financial history. Madoff, 71, pleaded guilty in March to securities fraud and other charges, saying he was “deeply sorry and ashamed.”

Madoff’s investors included at least 2,000 South Floridians, out of about 13,000 nationwide.

One of the major “feeder funds” that funneled money to Madoff was based in Fort Lauderdale. The accounting firm of Avellino and Bienes, which was shut down by the SEC in 1992, controlled $441 million which Michael Bienes says was exclusively invested with Madoff.

The Madoff losses have also rolled across charities in South Florida. Palm Beach’s Picower Foundation, which had almost $1 billion in assets and supported dozens of local programs, shut off donations in Madoff’s wake. The foundation of Palm Beach philanthropists Carl and Ruth Shapiro said it lost $145 million in Madoff investments and will make no new gifts.

Biggest defrauders should be subject to death penalty “Let him die,” said Tamarac Madoff victim Ralph Schwarz, “They are not going to give him what he deserves.”

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