Madoff’s lonely prison death lays bare our justice system
THE death of the infamous New York Ponzi scam fraudster Bernie Madoff, 82, in a US federal prison this week is a stark reminder of the unflinchingly harsh sentencing policies adopted by Uncle Sam and how much our system differs. Madoff, one of the greatest conmen in financial history was never, ever, going to taste a moment’s freedom again after being locked up for 150 years in 2009, for defrauding investors out of anything between $12bn and $20bn.
Yet here in Ireland, Bridie Gargan’s murderer Malcolm MacArthur was released – admittedly after serving 30 years behind bars – despite never having been held to account for the savage murder of another of his victims, Dónal Dunne in Offaly in 1982.
Before throwing away the key, Judge Denny Chin told Bernie Madoff that his crimes were ‘extraordinarily evil’ and that he didn’t deserve to have the slightest hope of ever again seeing the ‘light of day’.
His lawyers had sought a sentence of about 12 years to give Madoff, who was 71 at the time, some hope that he may live long enough to die in his own bed. They got their answer from Judge Chin.
Unsurprisingly, when Madoff sought compassionate release early last year because of kidney disease and a forecast that he only had 18 months to live, he was told where to go. Back to his cell.
Madoff’s rampant ‘greed is good’ criminality emerged when his own sons, Mark and Andrew, turned in their old man to authorities just before Christmas 2008. They told investigators their dad had admitted his entire business was a Ponzi scheme and a lie.
Imagine the chat a couple of weeks later over the Christmas dinner table.
During his imprisonment, much worse was to come for one of the world’s greatest fraudsters. Mark Madoff killed himself in 2010 on the second anniversary of his father’s arrest and then, in 2014, Andrew Madoff died of cancer.
Meanwhile, Bernie Madoff’s wife Ruth has been stripped of all her wealth – down to the last $2.5m. But, that goes too when her final call comes around.
Madoff’s crimes were highly organised and sustained over decades. He hunted a wide range of victims – including celebrities such as Steven Spielberg, Kevin Bacon and John Malkovich.
When he was eventually caught, Madoff discovered first-hand that America has the toughest sentencing policies on the planet and, with well over 2.1million people in jail, the world’s highest prison rate per capita at 639 per 100,000 population. We have a rate about nine times smaller, at around 75.
ABOUT five years ago, in a Dublin bookshop, I noticed a familiar-looking man next to me. He was Malcolm MacArthur, another infamous criminal who despite his long sentence still had unfinished business to settle up with our criminal justice system.
MacArthur had been released from prison in 2012 after serving 30 years for the extraordinarily brutal murder of nurse Bridie
Gargan as she sunbathed in Phoenix Park in July 1982. She was bludgeoned with a lump hammer and later died of her terrible injuries.
Three days later MacArthur killed Dónal Dunne in Offaly, the murder weapon was Mr Dunne’s own shotgun, which he thought MacArthur was intending to buy.
In an extraordinary set of circumstances, MacArthur was arrested by gardaí at the home of the thenattorney general Patrick Connolly at Pilot View in Dalkey. Connolly was entirely blameless but had to resign his AG position within hours, giving rise to then-Taoiseach Charlie Haughey’s memorable acronym GUBU, for describing the events at Pilot View as grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented.
Despite all the evidence implicating MacArthur in Dónal Dunne’s murder, including Mr Dunne’s shotgun being found at Pilot View, MacArthur’s admission to gardaí that he’d killed him and his fingerprints on a newspaper found in Edenderry, the State entered a nolle prosequi and failed to pursue the Dónal Dunne murder charge.
Aged 67 and looking fit and well MacArthur was released in 2012, enjoying that freedom ever since.
Meanwhile, the family, friends, neighbours and the broader community have been denied whatever justice there is when criminals are held to account in a court of law.
This denial lingers as a permanent stain on the entire criminal justice system, an undermining of its integrity and
credibility. And it is wrong.
The death of Bernie Madoff behind bars this week prompts the question – which country, Ireland or the US, has the correct sentencing policy. Perhaps the answer lies somewhere in between.