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Bernie Madoff, 71, gets 150 years in Ponzi scheme sentence
June 29, 2009 BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff has been sentenced to 150 years in prison for operating a multi-billion dollar Pnzi scheme.
Madoff, who earlier in his sentencing apologized to his family and victioms, is 71-years-old.
The financier said Monday at his sentencing that he “will live with this pain, this torment, for the rest of my life.”
Attorney Ira Sorkin says the 150 year sentence is excessive.
Victims who lost millions of dollars in the multibillion-dollar fraud perpetrated by Bernard Madoff described their ruined lives Monday to the judge sentencing the 71-year-old former Nasdaq stock market chairman.
Madoff, wearing a dark suit, white shirt and a tie, sat and listened as emotional witnesses described how he spoiled their security, and they urged U.S. District Judge Denny Chin to send him to prison for life.
“Life has been a living hell. It feels like the nightmare we can’t wake from,” said Carla Hirshhorn.
“He stole from the rich. He stole from the poor. He stole from the in between. He had no values,” said Tom Fitzmaurice. “He cheated his victims out of their money so he and his wife Ruth could live a life of luxury beyond belief.”
Dominic Ambrosino called it an “indescribably heinous crime” and urged a long prison sentence so “will know he is imprisoned in much the same way he imprisoned us and others.”
He added: “In a sense, I would like somebody in the court today to tell me how long is my sentence.”
Chin said the Probation Department had recommended a 50-year sentence be given Madoff.
Madoff’s lawyer has asked a judge to give his client 12 years behind bars. Prosecutors sought a 150-year prison term. Madoff “will speak to the shame he has felt and to the pain he has caused,” his attorney, Ira Sorkin, said in court papers.
“We seek neither mercy nor sympathy,” Sorkin wrote. But the lawyer urged Chin to “set aside the emotion and hysteria attendant to this case” as he determines the sentence. Prosecutors argued in court papers Friday that federal sentencing guidelines allow the 150-year sentence. Any lesser term, they said, should at least be the equivalent of a life sentence.
“The sheer scale of the fraud calls for severe punishment,” the prosecutors wrote.
The jailed Madoff already has taken a severe financial hit: Last week, a judge issued a preliminary $171 billion forfeiture order stripping Madoff of all his personal property, including real estate, investments, and $80 million in assets his wife Ruth had claimed were hers. The order left her with $2.5 million.
The terms require the Madoffs to sell a $7 million Manhattan apartment where Ruth Madoff still lives. An $11 million estate in Palm Beach, Fla., a $4 million home in Montauk and a $2.2 million boat will be put on the market as well.
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