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Time Is Money

Translating the Madoff sentence into dollars and cents

by
Liel Leibovitz
June 30, 2009
The Madoff Prison Time Breakdown(Getty Images/AFP)
The Madoff Prison Time Breakdown(Getty Images/AFP)

Bernard Madoff, whose Ponzi scheme is estimated to have bilked investors out of $65 billion, was sentenced to 150 years in prison yesterday. If we follow a simple time-divided-by-money formula, Madoff’s sentence can be said to represent approximately $1.2 million per day. Using this figure, we’ve calculated—in Madoff prison time—how long it would take to accomplish some fairly daunting tasks:

Liel Leibovitz is a senior writer for Tablet Magazine and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.

Liel Leibovitz is editor-at-large for Tablet Magazine and a host of its weekly culture podcast Unorthodox and daily Talmud podcast Take One. He is the editor of Zionism: The Tablet Guide.