Disgraced Wall Street trader Bernard Madoff was sent to jail Thursday after pleading guilty to all 11 charges against him, and expressing shame and sorrow for bilking investors of nearly $65 billion.
U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin immediately revoked Madoff’s bail and ordered the former Nasdaq stock market chairman to jail to await sentencing.
“He has incentive to flee, he has the means to flee, and thus he presents the risk of flight,” Chin said, according to the New York Times. “Bail is revoked.”
Applause broke out before the judge asked the audience, which included some of Madoff’s victims, to quiet down.
The 11 counts of securities fraud, money laundering, perjury and theft to which Madoff pleaded guilty carry maximum terms totaling 150 years. Sentencing is scheduled for June 16.
Since Madoff’s arrest on securities fraud Dec. 11, he has continued to live in his $7-million penthouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, albeit with restrictions. But his guilty plea erases the presumption of innocence that had enabled his lawyers to keep him out of jail.
The scheme devastated families, charities, universities and hedge funds, counting among its many victims Holocaust survivor Eli Wiesel, filmmaker Steven Spielberg, Mets owner Fred Wilpon and socialite Zsa Zsa Gabor. French hedge fund executive Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet, who lost $3 billion with Madoff, committed suicide after learning of his losses.
In response to Judge Chin’s questions about how he had sustained the 20-year-plus fraud, Madoff said he started it, “to the best of my recollection,” when the country was in a recession in the early 1990s, when it was difficult to achieve the returns that he believed his institutional clients had come to expect from him.
“When I began the Ponzi scheme, I believed it would end shortly and I would be able to extricate myself and my clients,” he said. “However, this proved difficult, and ultimately impossible, and as the years went by, I realized that my arrest, and this day, would inevitably come.
“I am painfully aware that I have deeply hurt many, many people, including the members of my family, my closest friends, business associates and the thousands of clients who gave me their money. I cannot adequately express how sorry I am for what I have done. I am here today to accept responsibility for my crimes by pleading guilty.”
Although Madoff admitted to orchestrating what he called “a Ponzi scheme through the investment advisory side of my business,” he insisted that all other aspects of the firm’s operations, operated by his brother, Peter Madoff, and his sons, Andrew and Mark, were “legitimate, profitable and successful in all respects.”
The Times described how Madoff’s voice was initially barely audible in a crowded courtroom packed with journalists, lawyers and some of his victims.
“Try to keep your voice up so that I can hear you, please,” the judge said at one point. At another point, Madoff asked for water.
According to the criminal information filed by prosecutors this week, Madoff had 4,800 client accounts at the end of November who had believed they had $64.8 billion invested with the firm. In fact, the business held only a small fraction of that balance.
To date, the firm’s bankruptcy trustee has found about $1 billion in cash and securities.
Prosecutors have said their investigation is continuing into who else may have helped Madoff run the scam, and where the money may have gone. No one else has been criminally charged.
Here is the full text of Madoff’s statement, courtesy of the Associated Press.
Click here to sign up for the Muckety Newsletter
0 Comments
There are no comments yet, be the first by filling in the form below.
Leave a Comment