A numbers game

Bernard Madoff, the crooked financier who fleeced thousands of investors in a global multibillion-dollar fraud, was sentenced to 150 years in prison on Monday.

That may sound like a long sentence. But 150, like all numbers, is relative.

Madoff ruined the lives of those who trusted him, high rollers, socialites and average Joes, all robbed of their savings and left with nothing.

Federal prosecutors call Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme the worst in history, yet the kingpin’s 150-year sentence ranks at No. 4 on the white collar crime hit parade.

Forbes lists Sholam Weiss with the longest sentence. His crime had a fraction of the value of Madoff’s — $450 million, which led to the collapse of National Heritage Life Insurance.

Neither Weiss nor his crime have reached the heights of Madoff’s infamy, but for those who are counting, Weiss is now serving the ninth year in federal prison — about 1 percent of his 845-year sentence.

That makes Madoff’s sentence seem like a slap on the wrist. The Ponzi master’s $65 billion haul was 140 times greater than Weiss’s, give or take a few million. Dollar for dollar, Madoff might have been sentenced to 118,300 years.