Boston Globe 7/4/09: Big talk likely fueled swindles: Regan, Madoff promised results they couldn’t deliver.  About the only thing separating Michael C. Regan from Bernard L. Madoff is billions of dollars. Regan and Madoff are both confessed swindlers, investment managers who affected a sophisticated mien and charmed and then betrayed clients. Madoff is from New York and Regan from Wayland, but both trolled heavily in Massachusetts for clients. Madoff, 71, stole at least $13 billion, and in Manhattan on Monday he received a 150-year prison sentence. Regan, 65, stole about $9 million, according to authorities, and faces up to 20 years in prison and $5 million in penalties. He is out on bail awaiting sentencing, scheduled for September in federal court in Brooklyn. By modern measures, Regan’s crime is at the lower end of the scale of securities fraud, while Madoff’s is a colossus. Yet, to specialists familiar with such fraudsters, Regan and Madoff are of a type: con men who compensate for their insecurities with grandiose schemes and promises.