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Monday June 29, 11:40 PM
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QUOTEBOX - Madoff gets life in prison for massive fraud
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Confessed Wall Street thief Bernard Madoff, 71, was sentenced to 150 years in prison on Monday for perpetrating Wall Street's biggest and most brazen investment fraud.
Following are selected quotes from main players in the case, including comments inside and outside Manhattan federal court:
U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE DENNY CHIN:
"Mr. Madoff's crimes were extraordinarily evil."
"The breach of trust was massive."
"I simply do not get the sense that Mr. Madoff has done all that he could or told all that he knows."
"By any of these monetary measures, the fraud here is unprecedented."
BERNARD MADOFF:
"I will live with this pain, with this torment, for the rest of my life."
"I live in a tormented state knowing the pain and suffering I have created."
"I cannot offer you an excuse for my behavior. How do you excuse betraying thousands of investors who entrusted me with their life savings?"
RUTH MADOFF, HIS WIFE:
"From the moment I learned from my husband that he had committed an enormous fraud, I have had two thoughts -- first, that so many people who trusted him would be ruined financially and emotionally, and second, that my life with the man I have known for over 50 years was over.
"Many of my husband's investors were my close friends and family. And in the days since December, I have read with immense pain the wrenching stories of people whose life savings have evaporated because of his crime."
INVESTOR TOM FITZMAURICE:
"Madoff has shown no remorse ... His crime was premeditated and calculated."
INVESTOR BURT ROSS:
"He has truly earned his reputation for being the most despised person living in America today."
MICHAEL SCHWARTZ, WHOSE FAMILY INVESTED WITH MADOFF:
"I only hope that he lives long enough that his jail cell becomes his coffin."
