国际英语新闻：Ponzi scheme mastermind Modoff likely to spend 150 years in prison

NEW YORK, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Bernard Madoff, the mastermind behind the largest and most sweeping Ponzi scheme ever, is scheduled to appear in a New York-based U.S. federal court on Monday, facing the possibility of spending the rest of his in prison.

Judge Denny Chin could sentence him to as many as 150 years in federal prison, which is the maximum sentence that Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's office in New York requested, based on the number of Madoff's victims, the amount of money he stole and the extent of the damage he caused.

    Many of his victims were wiped out financially by the scam and they have sent letters to the judge requesting a life sentence. Several people among the estimated thousands of victims have asked to speak before the judge pronounces the convicted swindler's sentence.

Accused swindler Bernard Madoff enters the Manhattan federal court house in New York, March 12, 2009

    Madoff, born on April 29, 1938, is an American former non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange who pled guilty to an 11-count criminal complaint in March, admitting to defrauding thousands of investors, and was convicted of operating a Ponzi scheme, which federal prosecutors say, is perhaps the largest financial swindle in history.

    Madoff, who was stripped of his property in a legal action Friday, confessed on March 12 to running a Ponzi scheme that stole billions of U.S. dollars from thousands of victims. He pleaded guilty to fraud, money laundering, perjury, false filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other crimes.

    Whether Madoff who mined a large chunk of his ill-gotten money from fellow members of the elite Palm Beach Country Club is handed the 12-year sentence that his lawyer is seeking or the maximum 150years that federal prosecutors are demanding is among the many uncertainties that still swirl around the case.

    Madoff's lawyer Ira Lee Sorkin asked for a 12-year sentence. In his own letter to the judge, Sorkin explained that his septuagenarian client isn't likely to outlive his requested sentence by more than a year.

    "Mr. Madoff is currently 71 years old and has an approximate life expectancy of 13 years," wrote Sorkin. "A prison term of 12 years -- just short of an effective life sentence -- will sufficiently address the goals of deterrence, protecting the public and promoting respect for the law."

    In his letter, Sorkin described Madoff as "non-violent," noted his "voluntary surrender" to authorities and complained about the "desire for a type of mob vengeance" in the victims' impact letters.

    In his plea allocution, Madoff stated that he began his Ponzi scheme in 1991. He admitted he had never made any legitimate investments with his clients' money during this time, instead he simply deposited the money into his Chase Manhattan Bank business account.

    U.S. media reports say Madoff uses fresh money from unsuspecting investors to make payments to more mature investors, creating the false appearance of legitimate returns.

    Madoff reportedly sent statements to victims claiming that their investments had grown several times over, but in actuality he had stolen, not invested, their money.

    Investigators said that Madoff maintained an aura of exclusivity, while his alleged accomplices courted new investors because they needed a constant influx of fresh funds. Investigators believe that he had been running his scam since at least the 1980s until he finally ran out of money in December 2008,when he admitted the fraud to family members.

    In a legal judgment against Madoff, the U.S. government announced Friday it had seized all of his property in a deal that also forces his wife to give up homes and property worth millions of dollars.

    As part of the judgment, the court papers indicate that Madoff and his wife Ruth Madoff will give up any claim on nearly 80 million dollars worth of property, which includes 60 million dollars and three homes: A Manhattan apartment valued at 7.5 million dollars, a 7 million dollars house in Montauk, New York, and a 7.45 million dollars home in Palm Beach, Flordia.

    Federal prosecutors estimated client losses, which included fabricated gains, of almost 65 billion dollars. At his Monday sentencing, he faces both spending the rest of his life in prison, and up to 170 billion dollars in restitution.

    Madoff founded the Wall Street firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC in 1960, and was its chairman until his arrest on December 11, 2008. The firm was one of the top market maker businesses on Wall Street, which bypassed "specialist" firms, by directly executing orders over the counter from retail brokers.

    He was said to have confessed to his sons first on December 10,2008 that the asset management arm of his firm was a giant Ponzi scheme as he put it, "one big lie." They then passed this information to authorities. The following day, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrested Madoff and charged him with one count of securities fraud. The SEC conducted several investigations into Madoff's business practices since 1999, which critics contend were incompetently handled.

    Madoff has two sons, Mark, 45 and Andrew, 42. Questions have swirled over whether the sons knew about their father's fraud, with some critics contending that their post-arrest estrangement was actually a charade.

    According to a March 13 filing by Madoff, he and his wife were worth up to 126 million dollars, plus an estimated 700 million dollars for the value of his business interest in Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. Other major assets include securities, cash, half-interest in BLM Air Charter, 2006 Leopard yacht in France, jewelry, Manhattan apartment, Montauk home, Palm Beach home, Cap d' Antibe, France property, and furniture, household goods, and art.

Accused swindler Bernard Madoff exits the Manhattan federal court house in New York , in this Jan. 14, 2009 file photo.