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White House says Madoff sentence sends strong signal

WASHINGTON
Mon Jun 29, 2009 4:59pm EDT

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Monday the judge who sentenced confessed swindler Bernard Madoff to 150 years in prison had sent a strong signal to investors who handle other people's money.

U.S.

"The judge wanted to send a very strong signal to anybody that invests money on behalf of others of the amazing responsibility that they have to those investors and to ... the country," said Robert Gibbs, President Barack Obama's spokesman.

"My guess is that that message will be heard loud and clear going forward," he told reporters.

U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin gave the former nonexecutive chairman of the Nasdaq stock market the maximum punishment allowed for what the judge called "extraordinarily evil" crimes.

Madoff ran a multibillion-dollar "Ponzi scheme" in which investors were paid returns from money paid by later investors.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Editing by Sandra Maler)
U.S.


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