Madoff sorry gets jail time

[bumper]

Not good enough, he has ruined many many lives. Take his assets and the companies, along with his family. Let them sleep on the street where they put others. He plead guilty not alleged any longer. It's a miracle somone hasn't killed him. The fed colf course i much to good for guy like theis. A robber has a few victims he had thouands. Pelikan Bay would be to good fo him. But he will never see anything like that

Madoff 'sorry' for massive fraud
By: AFP
Published: 12/03/2009 at 11:00 PM
New York - Wall Street conman Bernard Madoff was led handcuffed to jail Thursday after pleading guilty to tricking thousands of people out of billions of dollars in one of history's biggest financial scams.


Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 charges of running one of the largest financial frauds.
Madoff, 70, told a packed New York court he was "deeply sorry and ashamed" for the decades-long Ponzi scheme, and the former financial titan and chairman of the Nasdaq stock market now looks likely to die behind bars.

He faces a maximum sentence on June 16 of 150 years after pleading guilty to all 11 counts of fraud, perjury and theft. Prosecutors also want to track down an astounding 177 billion dollars they say passed through Madoff's hands.

Judge Denny Chin asked Madoff, wearing a grey suit, dark tie and white shirt, how he would plead.

"Guilty," Madoff replied, admitting all 11 counts of fraud, money laundering and theft which prosecutors say amounts to a whopping 177 billion dollars.

Speaking publicly for the first time about the scheme, Madoff, 70, who now faces a possible prison sentence of 150 years, said he was "deeply sorry and ashamed."

"I believed it would end quickly and I would extricate myself and my clients," he said. "This proved difficult and, in the end, impossible."

"I cannot adequately express how sorry I am," he added, saying: "I am here today to accept responsibility for my crimes."

Prosecutors have said they are also seeking to recover 177 billion dollars that Madoff is alleged to have received from clients over two decades, some of which he then paid out to other clients to create the illusion of high investment returns.

Chin has said he would decide Thursday whether to lock up Madoff -- currently on bail and living in his luxury New York apartment -- while the disgraced financier awaits sentencing.

Adding to the drama, some of the thousands of people believed to have been swindled in the massive fraud will be allowed to speak.

One of Madoff's alleged victims was Bennett Goldworth, who said he invested nearly four million dollars -- 97 percent of his net worth -- with the financier.

The loss "turned my life inside out, upside down," Goldworth told CNN on Thursday. "I was retired. I'd moved to Florida. I was starting over. And now I've had to move back to New York, move in with a parent at 52 years old. Start over with my business, which I had retired from."

Goldworth believes that the government has done little for the Madoff victims. "We've been stripped of everything. This is like any other emergency that's occurred in our country ... I don't have next month's rent," he said.

"And there are many victims who are older than I am who can't start over, who can't work, and they have nothing," he told CNN.

Chin said victims can comment on whether or not the court should accept Madoff's plea and on whether he should remain on bail.

Other issues, such as what punishment Madoff might deserve, will be off limits.

But Madoff's downfall signals only the start of attempts to seize the money he took.

Prosecutors in court filings Tuesday argued that Madoff should forfeit a staggering 177 billion dollars tied to his fund -- which stole clients' money from around the world over more than two decades.

Madoff's defense lawyer Daniel Horowitz rejected the 177 billion figure as "grossly overstated -- and misleading -- even for a case of this magnitude."

The dispute underlines the difficulty that investigators face in unraveling who was a victim.

Bernard Madoff allegedly ran a Ponzi scheme
Madoff was charged with running a giant pyramid scheme that used new investors' capital to pay profits to existing clients.

But while he is said to have enriched himself and those close to him, Madoff was at the same time using those stolen funds to pay steady returns to clients for many years.

When clients demanded their capital back, Madoff always obliged -- at least until redemption requests accelerated last year during the Wall Street meltdown and the scheme collapsed.

Horowitz pointed out that the charges stated Madoff used "most" of his funds to meet such redemption requests. "That distinction is of vital importance," Horowitz said.

No one else has been charged, though prosecutors say the case remains open.

Legal experts say the probe might turn to others, including Madoff's brother Peter, and his sons Mark and Andrew, all of whom worked closely with the disgraced investment manager.

Madoff's wife Ruth is about to get her own lawyer, having previously relied on Sorkin.

[old-timer]

It wasn't only Madoff and his lot who made a tidy fortune out of this scam -
the IRS did too - here's how - the people that were being conned were declaring
the profits made on the decades long ponzi scheme to the IRS on the strength
of the statements madoff was sending them. Rather than disturb their
"investment" they would go ahead and pay the tax out of their own pocket.
As it stands at the moment the IRS will only entertain tax rebate claims for up to
the previous 3 years.

[bumper]

Sad as well, invesotrs took it fom both ends, Difference in the IRS wasn't running the scheme, but your right they are up the creek without a paddle past three years. Wonder if that could be argued if your were the victim of an ongoing crime which is what this was?

Time for the tax lawyers to make some money.