From a fintech point of view, on this Black Friday the 13th, let us all check if "Iwantoneofthose.com" has a USB device to fly a flag at half mast in honor of the Madoff programmers, Jerome O'Hara and George Perez. 

Madoff is in jail, his right hand man awaiting sentencing, his auditor and many (probably not enough) of his middlemen and solicitors for the feeding funds have been charged.  

The Bear hedge fund managers just got off.  Seems unfair, but it is not a crime to be a horrible portfolio manager, and the SEC was using emails way out of context as the basis of their case.  Madoff is a different case.  A rising market would have saved Bear but only delayed Madoff.

Entire families lived decades of the east coast highlife based on nothing but running feeder funds for Madoff.  These players had a fiduciary responsibility to know better, and doubtlessly did, and deeply deserve some hard time. But will they get it? They can afford the finest lawyers in the world, not to mention PR reps, money hidden offshore, etc...

Whoever at the SEC ignored multiple well placed and well documented tip offs about Madoff should be investigated maybe a bit more.   Bernie's niece married an SEC lawyer!?  And was probably  given millions to invest in real estate ? 

At this point, we can assume that Madoff got away with a plea bargain where no one else in his family will be charged.  Certainly his sons, including the chief compliance officer,  made around five million a year for years. 

Perhaps such an official has a tad more moral, ethical and legal responsibility than a couple of programmers that were operating on direct instructions with their jobs at risk, and were "bought off"  with a lousy raise of less than 25% and one time bonuses of ~$60K ?   Please. Bernie's sons spent more than that on Blackberries.

Come on, SEC, let the punishment fit the crime. 

From a fintech point of view, the biggest crime of the programmers was seemingly involving the high tech, DMA, automating equity traders out of a job,  big pipes, fast boxes, algo legitimate wing of Madoff, to appear linked with the purely crooked investment management side.

Or, alternatively, post this ad on Dice.com and see how many applications come in: 

- Position available running ponzi scheme with apparent SEC compliance.  ~Twenty years of ~nine figure income for your family to enjoy with fame and adoration.  The only catch being if you live into your seventies without fleeing the country, pretend to serve a 150 year sentence.