110
years the amount of time Stanford, who built a $7 billion scheme over 20 years, was actually sentenced; he could've gotten 230 years source
» For comparison's sake, Bernie Madoff got 150 years. Stanford, who was convicted of 13 of 14 fraud counts in March, lived a lavish life, and was at one point personally worth $2 billion. (His scheme, half the size of Madoff's, was nonetheless massive.) But his assets were frozen and he was so broke that he had to rely on court-appointed lawyers. Said lawyers have no sense of gravity, apparently — they seriously thought he'd get jailed for less than four years? Perhaps, though, it was Stanford himself who screwed up his chances, telling the judge this on Thursday: “I’m not here to ask for sympathy or forgiveness or to throw myself at your mercy. I did not run a Ponzi scheme. I didn’t defraud anybody.” He spoke for 40 minutes. He claimed the U.S. used “gestapo tactics” on him. In return, he got a huge sentence.