Madoff Sentence a Massive Waste: Alec Baldwin

Alec Baldwin throws water on the general celebration of Bernie Madoff's prison sentence, arguing that the 150-year term handed down to the fraudster Monday was a wasted opportunity. "I want to suggest, as I am confident others have, that Madoff be given a reduced sentence in exchange for answering every question that investigators ask regarding how he did what he did and what are his recommendations for how this might be detected and/or prevented in the future," the actor writes for the Huffington Post.

One has to assume Madoff was given no shortage of opportunities to come clean in exchange for leniency, but still, Baldwin notes that the sentence doesn't help the victims. Who does it help? "The incompetents at the SEC who stood by and allowed this to happen." The sentence, he notes, means Madoff will never become a 21st-century Frank Abagnale, the '60s con man—of Catch Me If You Can fame—who eventually became a security consultant for the likes of the FBI.



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