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A 'sorry and ashamed' Bernard Madoff pleads guilty
Larry Nuemeister and Tom Hays The Associated Press
Issue date: 3/13/09 Section: News
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Madoff, 70, could get up to 150 years in prison when he is sentenced in June.
In refusing to let the disgraced financier remain free on bail until then, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin noted that Madoff had the means to flee and an incentive to do so.
The plea did not satisfy many investors who had hoped Madoff would be forced to name any family members or others who helped him swindle them out of billions of dollars. He pleaded guilty to all 11 charges against him - with no deal with prosecutors - meaning he is under no obligation to disclose names and tell authorities where the money went. He is not believed to be cooperating with prosecutors.
"I am actually grateful for this opportunity to publicly comment about my crimes, for which I am deeply sorry and ashamed," Madoff, speaking softly but firmly, said in his first public comments about his crimes since the scandal broke in early December.
DeWitt Baker, an investor who attended the hearing and said he lost more than $1 million with Madoff, called it "fantastic" that Madoff's bail was revoked but belittled the apology.
"I don't think he has a sincere bone in his body," said Baker, who added that prison time would be too good for Madoff. "I'd stone him to death."
Madoff did not look at any of the three investors who spoke at the hearing, even when one turned in his direction and tried to address him.
The fraud, which prosecutors say may have totaled nearly $65 billion, turned a well-respected investment professional - he was once chairman of the Nasdaq exchange - - into a symbol of Wall Street greed amid the economic meltdown. The public fury toward him was so great that he was known to wear a bulletproof vest to court.
Madoff pleaded guilty to charges including fraud, perjury and money-laundering, telling the judge that the scheme began in the early 1990s, when the country was in a recession and the market was not doing well.
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Reil
posted 3/18/09 @ 4:27 AM MST
Today was rice day, fifty-pound sacks of white rice in trucks bearing an elephant logo. The same happy elephant appeared on the bags, its head raised to the sky, the trunk curved like an S. (Continued…)
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