Local Ponzi Victim Wants Different Punishment For Madoff

Local interior designer Sandy Blake keeps 14 years worth of records of her past transactions when she invested hundreds of thousands of dollars with Bernard Madoff.

In fact, Blake, 75, invested $300,000 with Madoff. In February, she told News Channel 3 that seeing 30 years of savings disappear was “absolutely devastating.”

Since then, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 felony charges connected to the largest swindling case in Wall Street.

Yet, after all of the money she has lost and the pain of working late into her years, Blake had something surprising to say after Madoff was taken immediately to prison Thursday.

“I really do not believe that Mr. Madoff should be sent to prison.”

Blake, though, says Madoff should be punished in other ways.

“I think he needs to be sent to the stock market to earn back the money that has been lost.”

She’s been told by federal officials she may get her money back. But she’s getting conflicting signals, meaning she isn’t certain what to believe about the fate of her retirement money.

“Quite honestly, sometimes I sit in a chair all day and don’t move, just staring out and just going, ‘what am I going to do?…How do I deal with this?’ How at 75-years-old do I start all over again?’ There isn’t enough time to earn that money back.

“I highly resent as a taxpayer having to pay for shelter, for clothing, for food, for medical, for the rest of his life.”