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Madoff sentenced to 150 years for fraud scheme

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff was sentenced Monday to 150 years in prison on securities fraud charges stemming from his alleged multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme. Madoff, 71, appeared before Judge Denny Chin of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York and was given the maximum sentence for the 11 fraud charges to which he pleaded guilty in March. Madoff made a statement in court apologizing to his victims. Prosecutors are still investigating whether anyone else at the firm was involved in the fraud scheme and charged Madoff's accountant David Friehling in connection with the scheme in March. In April, Chin issued a restraining order that protects from bankruptcy more than $100 million in Madoff's assets. On the same day, a federal bankruptcy judge appointed an interim trustee to oversee Madoff's assets ahead of attempts by injured investors to recoup losses suffered in the scheme. In February, Madoff consented to a partial judgment with the SEC over civil charges brought by the SEC to obtain a preliminary injunction and asset freeze against him. The same day, then-SEC Division of Enforcement Director Linda Thomsen announced she was stepping down from her post. In the week following Madoff's charges, then-SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said that he would launch an immediate investigation into how the fraud allegedly perpetrated by Madoff went undetected for so long.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on June 29, 2009 (boomark / email).