Madoff Case and Geithner Nomination…Two Glaring Examples Of Our Two-Tiered Justice System

When FBI agents arrested Bernie Madoff on December 11, 2008, they discovered 100 signed checks, totaling $173 million in his Midtown Manhattan office. Madoff was apparently about to transfer the funds and hide the money in the accounts of friends and family.

Of course, Madoff is currently residing in his luxurious Manhattan home. However, his victims are not fairing as well.

Maureen Ebel, 60, a widow living in Westchester, NY was told by Madoff that she had $7.3 million worth of investments. Last month, she discovered that all of the money was gone. The retired nurse was living a comfortable life, and still coping with the loss of her husband in 2000.

Today, Ebel has a job as a caretaker for an elderly woman, seeing to her personal needs, as well as cleaning her house.

Ebel recently told an NBC News reporter: "I was married, had a fabulous marriage to a man I loved and worshiped, a physician. We traveled. We had a very fine life. And he's dead. He died, and every penny I had in the world has been stolen."

Ebel is now trying to sell the two-bedroom Florida condo she and her husband purchased together, as well as her car. She has been selling-off items in her home such as a Ping-Pong table for $400, and jewelry for $1,100.

Ebel received monthly statements from Madoff, which she saved. She describes the elaborate scam: "When you look at the statements, which are probably all bogus, you can see that he's just trading blue chips, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Wachovia, Abbott, Pfizer. I got one of these every single month, and without fail I got my check every quarter."

She doesn´t know how she will continue making the $2,400 a month house payments, nor how she will be able to survive with her life´s savings now gone.

However, she does know how she would deal with Madoff, if given the opportunity. Asked by the reporter what she might do if she were alone with Madoff…Ebel said: "You can´t print it."

Arnold and Joan Sinkin who were born in Brooklyn and lived the entirety of their working lives in New York, moved to a condo in Boynton Beach, FL to escape the harsh northeast winters. They have also been wiped-out by Madoff.

On December 14, Arnold, a 76 year old retired carpet salesman told the New York Daily News: "I put my kids through college, made four weddings, did everything to put away some money. "Two days ago, it was all wiped out."

Joan, 75, expressed the common frustration being felt among Madoff´s victims, as well as the growing consensus of the man himself, when she said crying: "Nobody in our lives gave us anything. We worked hard for every penny that we had. There's really no more lowlife than that man. My whole life fell apart."

In contrast to his victims, now forced to return to work and selling-off their possessions to make ends-meet, Bernie Madoff is still enjoying a luxurious lifestyle, being allowed to remain in his $7 million Manhattan penthouse apartment. He has been allowed to do so, even after it was discovered that he had attempted to transfer over a million dollars worth of jewelry and other assets to friends and family through the mail.

After that stunt, prosecutors went back to court to ask that Madoff´s bond be revoked. However, the judge denied the request and allowed Madoff to stay in his posh digs.

Despite the tremendous impact Madoff has had on those who trusted him, and his attempt to hide some of his sizeable assets, Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis told prosecutors: "The government fails to provide sufficient evidence that any potential future dissemination of Madoff´s assets would rise to the level of an economic harm."

Meanwhile, just across the river on Rikers Island, there are thousands of petty thieves who could not afford their bail, and sit awaiting trial for such crimes as check fraud and shoplifting.

After his arrest, Madoff was released on a $10 million personal recognizance bond, for which he used some of his substantial properties to secure. In addition to the Manhattan penthouse, Madoff owns homes in Montauk, NY, Palm Beach, FL, and Antibes, France. He also owns at least four boats.

Madoff did not actually have to come up with any cash to meet his bail.

Then we have the nomination and now confirmation of Timothy Geithner as Secretary of the Treasury.

During the years 2001-2004, Geithner worked for the International Monetary Fund. Because he is an American citizen, and considered self-employed, he was required to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes just as any contractor or small business owner would have to pay.

Geithner failed to pay the appropriate taxes for the entire time he worked for the IMF.

In 2006, Geithner was audited and the IRS determined that he owed back taxes for 2003 and 2004. He then paid those taxes, totaling $17,230. However, he did not pay the taxes and interest for the years 2001 and 2002 until November 2008, after Obama´s transition team discovered the infractions. At that time, he paid $25,970 to the IRS.

However, Geithner´s tax issues go a little farther than refusing to pay income taxes. He also recently filed an amended return and paid an additional $5,566 in back taxes and interest for various infractions including failing to pay an early-withdrawal penalty from a retirement plan, an erroneous small-business deduction, and an ineligible charitable-contribution deduction.

The Obama team also discovered that for the years 2001, 2004, and 2005 Geithner wrote-off the expenses incurred in sending his child to summer camp. He did so by improperly calculating his dependent-care tax deductions.

Of course, Geithner has characterized the failure to pay his taxes as simply "careless mistakes." He recently told the Senate confirmation panel: "I did not think about that until I went into the vetting process."

In addition to not paying his taxes, Geithner employed as a housekeeper, a foreign national who was ineligible to work in this country. No penalty was ever assessed to Geithner for hiring an illegal immigrant.

Conversely, on May 22, 2008, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agents arrested naturalized U.S. citizen Rong "Ricky" Shi, 32, after it was discovered that four illegal aliens from Mexico and China were working in his Milwaukee, WI restaurant known as Asiana.

Brian Falvey, resident agent-in-charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Milwaukee made the following statement after Shi´s arrest: "ICE is committed to enforcing the nation's immigration laws in the workplace to maintain the integrity of our legal immigration system. Criminal sanctions against employers are an effective deterrent to illegal employment schemes."

According to their official website, in 2007 alone, ICE levied over $30 million in criminal fines, and civil judgments in worksite enforcement cases. ICE also arrested 863 people in criminal cases and made more than 4,000 administrative arrests.

By the way, harboring illegal aliens is punishable by up to 10 years in a federal penitentiary.

At a time when the federal government is arresting and sending small business owners to jail for hiring illegal aliens, it is more than disgusting that we now have a Treasury Secretary whose illegal action we are supposed to simply ignore.

After the public learned of Geithner´s legal problems, Obama Press Secretary Robert Gibbs made the following statement on his behalf: "The president-elect chose Tim Geithner to be his Treasury Secretary because he's the right person to help lead our economic recovery during these challenging times. He's dedicated his career to our country and served with honor, intelligence and distinction. That service should not be tarnished by honest mistakes, which, upon learning of them, he quickly addressed. He made a common mistake on his taxes, and was unaware that his part-time housekeeper's work authorization expired."

If we accept Gibbs´ explanation of Geither´s unlawful actions as "honest mistakes," and that he was "unaware" of his housekeeper´s illegal status, then at the very least the American people should ask the question…Why do we want a seemingly incompetent person serving as Treasury Secretary?

However, most of us are now asking the question…Why has Congress allowed a tax cheat to oversee the IRS?

Whether it is Bernie Madoff living like a sultan in his multi-million dollar Manhattan penthouse, after having stolen $50 billion from retirees; or Congress allowing Timothy Geithner to assume the office of Treasury Secretary after committing actions which would land most of us in jail, and see liens placed upon our homes…both speak to the incredible double-standard which exists in the American justice system.

If you are rich and powerful, you only make "honest mistakes," if you are poor and power-less, you commit crimes and rot in jail.