Monday June 29, 03:51 PM
Wall Street swindler Madoff faces day of judgment
By Luis Torres de la Llosa
NEW YORK (AFP) - Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff, whose massive investment scam ruined high-end Hollywood clients and middle-class pensioners alike, appeared Monday at a sentencing hearing that could see him handed a 150-year jail term.
Some six months after he was unmasked as a huge con artist, the former Nasdaq (NASDAQ: news) stock market chairman appeared in a New York court, where Judge Denny Chin was expected to impose a sentence tantamount to Madoff serving the rest of his life in prison.
"You are here this morning to be sentenced for these crimes," Chin told the 71-year-old Madoff as the hearing began at 10:00 am (1400 GMT).
"The guidance range is 150 years, but I am not bound by it. I must impose a sentence that is reasonable," Chin said.
Madoff, wearing a suit rather than prison garb, stood quietly while being addressed by the judge, and was expected to make a statement before sentencing.
Also scheduled to address the court were several of his ruined victims, some of whom lost homes, inheritances and life savings in one of the biggest financial scams of all time.
Prosecutors say about 13 billion dollars was handed to Madoff. The financier himself has talked about losing some 50 billion dollars, which is believed to be the amount that would have been paid out had the funds been properly invested.
Outside the courthouse Monday, Michael De Vita was among many deceived investors who said he hoped the judge would be tough.
"I am here to see how the justice system can do, in the face of the biggest thief in the history on the universe," De Vita, 59, told AFP.
"I hope he will get the maximum sentence of 150 years."
Once the darling of the markets who was believed to have the Midas (NYSE: MDS - news) touch, Madoff now languishes in a tiny prison cell after admitting 11 charges of fraud, perjury and theft in March.
Among his victims were Hollywood celebrities, international movers and shakers, some of the world's most famous banks and Jewish charities, some of which were forced to close after the scheme unravelled.
Many of his investors were ordinary retirees who once thought their life savings were in safe hands, and now face financial ruin.
Madoff told the court in March that of the billions of dollars which passed through his hands during his three-decade scam he never invested one cent in the market. Instead he stashed the funds in a Chase Manhattan bank account.
The funds were then used to pay out "dividends" to investors in what is known as a "Ponzi scheme."
The sums were shockingly large -- bigger than the gross domestic product of countries such as Luxembourg, and more than the external debt of several poor African nations.
Chin has ordered that Madoff forfeit over 170 billion dollars in illegally obtained assets, following a request from the prosecutors.
In an accompanying order, a district court in New York also stipulated that wife Ruth Madoff be stripped of 85 million dollars in assets, leaving her with just 2.5 million dollars in cash.
In addition to having what remains of his fortune stripped away, Madoff is likely to spend the rest of his life in jail.
"Madoff will get no less than a 20-year sentence and probably more than that," former federal prosecutor William Devaney predicted to AFP.
Under US federal criminal law, a convict must serve at least 85 percent of their sentence and demonstrate good conduct during that time, which for Madoff translate to a minimum of 17 years in prison. At the end of that period, he would be 88 years old.
Due to the scope of Madoff's scam, "it would be very difficult for him to get his sentence overturned on appeal," Devaney said.
However, he expected the appeals court to rule on the case within a year.
One lingering issue in the case is how to return the stolen funds.
Of the billions dollars which were lost, prosecutors say only one billion dollars have been recovered from the liquidation of his assets.
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