White-collar criminals need to be punished

Some are saying the sentencing of perhaps the biggest swindler in history to 150 years in prison seems overly harsh, but the federal judge who imposed the punishment says one of his goals was to send a message.

The judge said the sentence, which means 71-year-old Bernard Madoff will likely die in prison, was appropriate because of the multibillion-dollar magnitude of the theft and because of how it had impacted so many lives.

Usually such long sentences are reserved for violent criminals like murderers. Traditionally, so-called white-collar criminals who fleece people of their money have avoided lengthy prison terms. But that has been changing as the scope of white-collar crimes, which can harm many thousands of people, has grown.

And that is a good thing.

We live in a society that is founded on free enterprise. Great latitude is given to operate with relatively little oversight. That provides great freedom and great opportunity. But it also requires responsibility to act ethically and within the bounds of the law.

When white-collar criminals are given leniency despite the harm they do to others, it undermines support for the free enterprise system. We already see that in a growing disrespect for and distrust of corporate executives of all kinds and people in the financial world.

We suspect the judge in the Madoff case wanted to send a clear message that someone who destroys the financial well-being of a person can potentially do as much harm as physically assaulting them. In fact, an assault may be less serious because the recovery is shorter term.

The Madoff case could help build confidence in the public that those who act irresponsibly in the free market system will have to pay a high price for their actions.