Your Madoff prediction: Prison time, slap on the wrist, rats on others and walks away?

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Poll question: Your Madoff prediction: Prison time, slap on the wrist, rats on others and walks away?

[TheWraith]

1. He'll probably do a plea bargain, and serve a few years minimum security.

Unless he runs into a prosecutor who's ambitious, or feels like making an example of him.

[FSogol]

2. The GOP will hire him to explain how to protect the henhouse.

See Neil Bush and the S&L crisis.

[Blue_In_AK]

3. If he does any time at all,

it will be in some cushy, minimum-security country-club facility. I hope I'm wrong -- I'd like to see him at Marion.

[MADem]

4. Other: Some of the above

He will go to jail, but not for "enough" time. It won't be "hard" time either. There's not much ratting to do--he's Ponzi in this scheme.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. OTHER.

Remember, he was laundering Russian mob money. Tons of it. He lost their money. They will not be amused.

I read a book by an ex secret service guy who described how, even today, it is impossible to make the president safe from every possible threat. Give them time. they will get their revenge.

[Andy823]

6. Two standards for justice

One for the rich and one for the rest of us. If he does any jail time it will amaze me. He is going to rat out everyone he can about all kinds of shady deals in the past to get a free ride.

[Horse with no Name]

7. He will allegedly die before he is sentenced

There will be no trial.
Wife will keep all the money and join him in a secluded location with a new identity at a later date.

This has been done before. There is already a playbook.

[tekisui]

8. That is my prediction, too.

[zagging]

9. Massive fines, 15 years minimum security

After a few years he will become frail, plead for leniency, be paroled, and die from a withering illness at the very comfortable home of a lifelong friend and co-conspirator, who will be heard to say from time to time that Mr. Madoff was really a gentle and forthright soul who was also a victim of the turbulent times.

[Imagine My Surprise]

10. He'll go the way of "Kenny Boy" Lay -- natural causes n/t

[salguine]

11. God, wouldn't it be great if the new Justice Department put resources and effort

into finding where Kenny Boy Lay actually is, and dragged him, quite alive, into a courtroom? Imagine those headlines! I'd love to see how that would play in Crawford.

[norepubsin08]

12. No Kidding

We should get a petition to the justice department and put the pressure on them!

[seemslikeadream]

13. He will leave the earth before he sees the inside of a jail

[DeschutesRiver]

14. Didn't vote because

I didn't see an option for "torn from limb to limb by Sarah Palin's wolf packs"...

I am getting concerned that he is successfully threatening our .gov regulators/etc into giving him some kind of a sweetheart deal. Or in my dark moments, that he is paying them off. I read something recently about his lovely bride Ruthless Ruth, who just days before Bernie's magical confession, was writing large checks out of their accounts - 5 million, 10 million. What the heck was that about?

I am having a hard time figuring out what our .gov's game play is in extending the negotiations with Bernie like this. There is a reason, but nothing is coming to mind right now that doesn't involve Bernie succeeding in getting off for way less than he should.

[AZBlue]

15. He'll "die" suddenly and go live on Kenneth Lay's island with him.

[Canuckistanian]

16. He ripped off a lot of RICH people. He's going down

It's a crime to rip off the rich in America.

It's OK to rip off poor people.

[Ikonoklast]

17. Will never see one day of jail time.

He knows things about people, and they know he knows.