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 June 29, 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.
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.
