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Photographs of Bernard Madoff arriving at the federal courthouse by Louis Lanzano/AP
Bernard Madoff, extreme Ponzi scheme mastermind, arrived at the U.S. District Court this morning around 7 a.m. (video from MyFoxNY —Madoff was transported in a Silver Kia below). He is expected to plead guilty to 11 criminal charges (PDF) related to a $64.8 billion investment fraud involving thousands in the U.S. and overseas. The hearing will not start until 11 a.m.
According to the NY Times, one of the big issues will be his freedom. Madoff has been free on $10 million bail, living under house arrest at his Upper East Side penthouse, ostensibly because he is presumed innocent. The Times reports, if he pleads guilty, "His own lawyers must then persuade the court that he should remain free until his sentencing, perhaps more than two months away, or should at least have a few more weeks of liberty to put his personal life in order." The Wall Street Journal says that U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin will "give investors a chance to challenge his conclusion whether to accept a guilty plea to securities fraud and perjury, among other charges. He also will let burned investors challenge his decision whether Mr. Madoff should be allowed to await sentencing in his $7 million Manhattan penthouse or immediately go to prison."
More details to be posted as they come.
Update, 10:10 a.m.: Madoff pleads guilty to all 11 charges. When asked by Judge Chin if he wants to plead guilty, the disgraced financier replied, "Yes it is correct."
Update, 10:30 a.m.: Judge Chin is going through the charges and sentencing. It's unclear how many of Madoff's victims will speak, but the courtroom, which has about 150 seats, has many victims present. (Unclear if there's an overflow room for victims to watch on closed-circuit TV.) Ah, apparently Madoff said, "Your Honor, I operated a Ponzi scheme for many years. I am grateful for this opportunity to speak. [I am] deeply sorry and ashamed. I cannot adequately express how sorry I am for what I have done," and adds, "Victims of my fraud include individuals, charities, pension and hedge funds."
Still reading his prepared statement, Madoff admits to given false testimony to the SEC about his business. Also: "I always knew this day would come."
Prosecutors says victims would send him funds and then Madoff would wire the money, mostly to banks in London. He is sitting with his hands folded.
Update, 11:05 a.m.: Madoff's sentencing will be on June 16, at 1:30 p.m.
Update, 11:18 a.m.: CNBC reports that Madoff is going to jail and showed a photograph of a cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
Update, 11:30 a.m.: One Madoff victim, Jesse Cohen, tells CNBC that he didn't feel anything when Madoff apologized—"I'm pretty numb"—but did say that seeing Madoff in handcuffs was a satisfying moment. He added he didn't think that justice was being served—he wants to know why the SEC dropped the ball.
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Throw the SOB into prison the second he pleads guilty, he's had enough time to "put his personal life in order" while waiting for this trial.
A silver KIA? Wow, the economy is in hard times...
Lead him straight out of the courtroom into a van en route to Rikers. Do not pass Park Ave, do not collect 62 million dollars from the missus.
Next stop on this travesty, get the wife.
If I jumped a turnstile I would be in jail w/in 25 minutes.
Woa!
Any conjecture regarding the deal he probably cut to roll over so fast?
There's no deal. He's rolling over to protect everyone else involved with this.
Exactly. If there were others, their necks should be out as well.
Perhaps he spilled the locations of hidden funds.
He's not sorry he did it. He's sorry he got caught.
Screw this dude's 'personal life'. Toss him in the clink NOW!
What about the personal lives he completely ruined? They didn't have time to 'get them in order'. He is a criminal and must be jailed immediately. In my opinion. What do I know?
Not that I don't share that same visceral reaction that you have to pummel this fellow, but on the other hand I don't see how throwing him in the clink (on our dime, I might add) improves or accomplishes anything.
Punishment/revenge/retribution are their own reward, but they are very short-lasting ones. Will you be excited in 6-months as you are today if they tossed him in?
I perhaps lack in imagination, but maybe something a bit more 'cruel' is in order- make him dress in janitorial clothing and go around scrubbing toilets and floors, dedicating a week at a time by each of his 3,500 victims homes until the day he returns his shriveled black soul to his maker. We can get creative and bar him from ever entering a restaurant, nightclub, stadium, give him 9PM curfew- in short there are things that are better than handing him over to Bubba's sole pleasure.
The upside is that it won't cost us taxpayers a single dime to house him, guard him, feed him, clothe him, etc.
Do I make any sense?
Not really. The purpose of jail time is the punishment. Unfortunately, because of his age, he wont live long enough to become a productive citizen once more.
And how exactly does this make the victims whole?
I'm not questioning the concept of punishment, but rather why we, society at whole, aren't more concerned with restitution, instead of retribution.
this is about as honorable as he'll ever be. cage him!
CNN: Convicted Ponzi scheme swindler Bernard Madoff ordered to await sentencing in jail.
Now it's time to get the other crooks involved in this scheme.
Start with his wife.
Enjoy the tombs, motherfucker. You're going to spend 3 months there before they send you to the country-club Fed lockup for your death sentence.
The Tombs is a NYS facility. He is in federal custody. He will go the the MCC, in Manhattan, or the MDC, in Brooklyn, until he is sentenced.
Among his thousands of victims were Elie Wiesel and Sandy Koufax. Jeez, Madoff, didn't you draw the line somewhere?
Where this could get even uglier - if you were (presumably innocently) high up on the pyramid and managed to get out before everything collapsed, well, everyone below will be coming after you to recoup their losses.
They should revive the stocks for this guy, the kind where your head and hands are trapped in wooden brackets while people do stuff to you. Hope there will be something like this awaiting him in jail...
i can't wait to see him at sentencing, after he's pale from the lack of sunlight and he can longer rinse that silvery mane with Alterna TEN.
ALL CAPS? Excited much?
I might be completely dumb, so please excuse me, but I don't understand the following:
he scammed his clients out of around 50 billion.
where is the money? You cannot spend that amount of money.
Or did he literally burn it?
Maybe you need to read up on how a ponzi scheme actually works.
oh wow, thanks for the advice!!!!!!!!!!!
No problem, I can show you how to tie your shoelaces too if you like.
He's only kidding. No one can show you how to tie your shoelaces.
He didn't take $50 billion, that was just the estimated value of all of the accounts. He still probably stole $10-$20 billion, but that also was paid out to older clients with the money from newer clients.
The government is still the biggest winner:
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/another-view-the-government-is-madoffs-biggest-winner/
i'm not sure why regular folk - i.e. people who never would have been able to get into his ponzi pool in the first place - care so much about a greedy man taking advantage of greedy people. i can get the ethical, social, financial discussions about his long-running scam...but being so angry?
if someone walks up to you on the street and says "i have a briefcase filled with 10,000 dollars. it is yours. take it" - would you take the briefcase?
if your answer is yes, well, how do you legislate against such willful stupidity?
it may be tragic, or it may be comical, but worthy of such rage? you cannot legislate against stupidity and wishful thinking. there's no government bureaucracy that can prevent idiocy from overwhelming common sense, and that's even given the rather noble presumption that government isn't the manifestation of idiocy in mob form.
It's not so black and white. Many of the investors did not directly invest with Madoff. As was mentioned, there are about 35 pension plans, comprised of money from "regular folk," that were invested with a financial manager, who in turn invested with Madoff.
You probably can throw stones and say "Why didn't those people look into where their money was being invested?" But if Madoff was concocting financial statements showing actual investments, which were in turn showed to their clients, it's easy to see how the waters muddy real fast.
"But if Madoff was concocting financial statements showing actual investments, which were in turn showed to their clients, it's easy to see how the waters muddy real fast."
that works, for a year or two. beyond that, it's willful blindness. no one rocks those kinds of returns no matter what. and that especially goes for pension managers, who sure as hell should have known better, and unlike hedge funds, aren't supposed to be swinging for the fences 24/7.
There where alot of sophisticated investors involved in this case and with the credibility that Maddoff had (ex chairman of Nasdaq) it was unimaginable to some that he would be running a pre-meditated ponzi scheme. He was also good at playing hard to get by turning down people who really, really wanted to invest with him, so he created the feeling of an exclusive club.
I think the reason that this case is so sensational is 1- the size of the scheme, and 2- the fact that such a high ranking and credible member of society would premeditate a criminal scheme like this. I know alot of "credible" individuals have done some fucked up shit in the past years, but they almost always start off with good intentions and end up degenerating to keep up wiht the jones. This guy, Madoff, is a pure sociopath who just enjoyed pulling the strings....
I am uninterested in Madoff. I would like to know about the SEC, which let him get away with his games for so long even after they were explicitly warned about him.
didn't this movie come out last week?
This post actually gives a verbatim account of Madoff's first and only confession: http://www.nypost.com/seven/03122009/news/regionalnews/madoffs_statement_at_hearing_159236.htm
Fascinating read. Clearly, this is to protect others involved in this scheme such as his 2 sons and his brother which he claims where only involved in the legitimate part of his business. So this entire guilty plea is a strategy based around protecting them, in my opinion...
From the confession he read in court today: "It is my belief that the salaries and bonuses of the personnel involved in the operation of the legitimate side of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities were funded by the operations of the firm's successful proprietary trading and market making businesses."
Of course this man didn't run this scheme all by his lonesome! His brother and two sons are part of the "legitimate side" of the business. They're all multi-millionaires. Also, don't forget wifey's $15M withdrawal before Bernie turned himself in. All the money being moved here is tainted.
Madoff is the biggest winner.
He lived a good life for 40 years.
And now in jail, we are paying for his
room, food, toilet, bathroom tissues, hot shower, heating bill, medical bills, TV, and internet ?
Some of us cannot afford the heating bills, and medical bills.
Madoff is the biggest winner.
What China would have done, is executed him.
Going to jail will waste taxpayer and government money.
His accomplices should be killed too.
Wife, children, employees, all should be dead.
Why do I have to pay for their great home in jail??