Life Term Sought For 'Extraordinary Crimes' by Madoff
Citing a fraud of "extraordinary dimensions" perpetrated by Bernard L. Madoff, the government on Friday requested either the U.S. Sentencing Guideline of 150 years in prison or "alternatively, a term of years that both would assure that Madoff will remain in prison for life, and forcefully would promote general deterrence."
In a 24-page sentencing memorandum, Lev L. Dassin, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, noted that between December 1995 and December 2008, the Ponzi scheme that. Madoff, 71, engaged in was "wholesale fraud" causing net losses of $13.2 billion to 1,341 accounts. It characterized his crimes as "serious and long-running, complex and highly orchestrated and devastating to generations of investors around the country and abroad."
Read the government's sentencing memorandum (pdf).
The "scope, duration and nature" of Madoff's crimes render him "exceptionally deserving of the maximum punishment allowed by law," the government argued.
Last week, Madoff's attorney, Ira Lee Sorkin of Dickstein Shapiro, asked Southern District of New York Judge Denny Chin to sentence his client to 12 years, a sentence that would give him a shot at emerging from prison before he died. Sorkin said in an interview Friday the government's 150-year recommendation was not unexpected.
The government quoted a dozen of Madoff's more than 250 victims in its sentencing memorandum.
"I am 86 years old, I have a broken knee, I have lung cancer and thanks to Madoff, I am now bankrupt," one victim stated.
Sentencing is scheduled for Monday at 10 a.m. The New York Law Journal will provide live updates at nylj.com.
For more coverage of the Bernard Madoff case, see the Law.com Madoff Watch page.
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