CHICAGO — Tearful, angry victims of a $77 million Ponzi scheme that targeted hundreds of often working-class Italian-Americans crowded into a Chicago courtroom Thursday to tell their stories before a judge handed the convicted swindler a maximum 23-year prison term.

The federal judge rejected prosecutors' recommendation of a 12 1/2 year sentence for Frank Castaldi – in part because he had reported the two-decade scam himself – saying that would let the 57-year-old accountant and businessman off too easy, given the lives he ruined.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/15/frank-castaldi-gets-23-ye_n_718835.html