Madoff sentence sends a strong message, says local lawyer

A Maltese lawyer representing victims of the fraudster Bernard Madoff was expecting a stiff sentence for the man who received a 150-year jail term for a $65 billion investment scam.

"I was expecting a severe judgement and nothing like the 12 years the defence lawyers were after. That would have been a travesty of justice," Henri Mizzi said.

"The court was clearly out to send a very powerful message," he added.

Valletta-based legal firm Camilleri Preziosi, of which Dr Mizzi is a partner, is part of a world alliance of lawyers from 21 countries representing people claiming to having fallen victim to Mr Madoff.

"I am sure they (the victims) feel somewhat vindicated that, at least, Mr Madoff has been appropriately sentenced for this massive fraud," Dr Mizzi said when contacted.

Although he would not say how many people he is representing, Dr Mizzi said there were "not many".

Mr Madoff was sentenced in New York on Monday for what has been described as the largest, longest and most widespread Ponzi scheme (a form of pyramid scheme) in history. The sentence of 150 years in prison was the maximum he could have been given. The 71-year-old had confessed to running a Ponzi scheme in which investors were paid phantom returns from money paid by later investors.

Dr Mizzi said some investors had a "fair prospect of success" in getting some of their money back. "A few claims have been settled already while others are being processed.

There are a number of class actions being filed in the US, which will take time, although there is pressure on the various institutions to settle early. I would expect that a number of investors will get some of their money back," he said, adding that, however, everything depended on different circumstances in each particular case.

Dr Mizzi said he expected Mr Madoff to appeal the judgment because he had nothing to lose.

Meanwhile, the Malta Financial Services Authority could not say whether it received any complaints from victims of Mr Madoff. The MFSA said it was prohibited from passing any information it received.