Madoff Waives Indictment; Guilty Plea Up Next?

Fraudulent investor Bernard Madoff appears to be ready to enter a guilty plea, as he has just waived his indictment (meaning he's waiving the right to have a grand jury to review the charges). The Law Blog reports, "The waiver could presage a plea deal for Madoff. Often, prior to a plea, a defendant will waive his or her right to a grand-jury indictment. In such a case, the prosecutors’ 'charging document' — the document which lays out the case against the defendant — is called an 'information.'" (This morning, the U.S. Attorney's Office said it would file an "information".)

Newsday reports that speculation about a plea deal arose "when a special court hearing about a potential conflict of interest with his lawyer was quickly postponed, just hours after federal prosecutors in Manhattan had requested it." (The conflicts are that Madoff's lawyer Ira Sorkin's parents invested in Madoff's fake fund and that Sorkin represented accountants accused of setting up a feeder fund to Madoff.)

It's unclear when the information will be filed and when the guilty plea will be entered. Right now, there are doubts about whether Madoff's far-reaching fraud was the estimated $50 billion—the Associated Press reports "some believe it's less than $20 billion." SIPC president Stephen Harbeck said he couldn't venture a guess, but added, "I think it's somewhat misleading to say this was a $50 billion scheme because I believe that includes the fictitious profits. If that is the case, and I believe it to be the case, then the real dollars lost would be considerably lower."

Update: The Law Blog has new details: "According to the WSJ’s Amir Efrati, citing a person familiar with the matter, no plea agreement is expected soon between prosecutors and Madoff. At a hearing next Thursday, the government is expected to file the information, which will lay out allegations against Mr. Madoff and list numerous criminal charges against him. At that point, Madoff may say that he plans to plead guilty to the charges or that he would like to go to trial."

On the topic of whether Madoff's wife Ruth can keep nearly $70 million in assets and property, Wayne State law professor Peter Henning writes on the Dealbook that though the items are in Ruth Madoff's name, "Simply putting assets into another person’s name, or giving them as a gift, does not necessarily shield them when they are the proceeds of criminal activity." Thought so!

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By Jen Chung in News on March 6, 2009 1:35 PM

Comments [rss]

PacificGatePost

HEDGE FUND UNDERBELLIES WILL SURFACE AT MADOFF & Co. TRIALS

From New York to Geneva, corruption is rampant and complex on Wall Street, including the process of accumulation of this much cash concentration.

In Madoff’s own words? ……

THE MADOFF LETTER

MADOFF and his METHODS are not so unique.

UnnDunn

"But everyone did it" is not a valid excuse. Not for speeding, and certainly not for ponzi schemes.

Guest

Who cares whether it was $20 or $50 billion? It's still a lot of money he fucked people over for. Bitching about the difference between the two amounts is like debating on whether jumping from the top of the Chrysler building would hurt less on impact that jumping from the top of the ESB.

felixthecat2

but it also affected a lot of european lenders and investors not just jews in florida. It is that the news is not focus on the outside investors not Madoff did a lot of damage and european banks will no longer invest in NYC because of madoff.

famdoc

Mr. Madoff should be tried by a Beth Din (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B..., a rabbinical court. His crimes disproportionately affected Jews and I think those rabbis can deal with him better than the plea-bargaining civil court system. At the very least, they should recircumcise him...without anesthesia.

felixthecat2

but those false statements and false profit lead banks to give leverage to the funds of funds on the collateral which we now know was fake. a lot of money was lost by the banks including bnp,nomura etc and not only madoff direct investors lost money but shareholders and employees of those bank lenders. what is outrageous is that his family and employees who were involved are not being prosecuted. it is all fixed.

Politburo

"I think it's somewhat misleading to say this was a $50 billion scheme because I believe that includes the fictitious profits. If that is the case, and I believe it to be the case, then the real dollars lost would be considerably lower."

I read this article this morning, and I don't think I agree with this reasoning. I understand what they're saying, and I understand the profits were on paper only and completely fictitious. But people structured their lives around those fake profits, so in my mind the losses do have a real-world effect, even if the money never existed. Downplaying the situation by saying "Well, it was really only $20 billion" doesn't seem warranted.