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July 3, 2009

Our view: Madoff got punishment he deserved

Many came to see swindler Bernie Madoff get his just deserts Monday: no one appeared to speak in his behalf.

Indeed, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin noted that "not a single letter was submitted in support of Madoff. Not friends, not family. That is telling."

Also telling was the sentence Chin handed down — 150 years in prison — which assures that Madoff, 71, will remain behind bars for life. It's a fair punishment for the man who enriched himself at the expense of so many who'd trusted him with their life savings.

Chin's words and sentence spoke eloquently for the victims. "Here the message must be sent that Mr. Madoff's crimes were extraordinarily evil and that this kind of manipulation of the system is not just a bloodless crime that takes place on paper," the judge declared, "but one instead that takes a staggering toll."

"Justice has been served," Swampscott's Robert Lappin told The Salem News after the sentencing. His Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation, the largest Jewish philanthropy on the North Shore, was wiped out when the multibillion-dollar house of cards Madoff had constructed came tumbling down late last year.

Lappin, 87, is working hard to get his foundation back on its feet, and this month will see 83 high-school sophomores and juniors off to Israel as part of a program he has funded since 1971. As for Madoff, he will languish in jail pondering a crime for which, by his own admission Monday, there can be no excuse.

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