US Financier Madoff Admits Largest Fraud in Corporate History

Bernard Madoff has pleaded guilty and now faces as sentence of up to 150 years in jail. Photo by wordpress.com

Disgraced US financier Bernard Madoff has been jailed after pleading guilty to all 11 charges surrounding an estimated USD 50 B fraud. He could now receive up to 150 years in jail when he is sentenced in June.

Some of his victims clapped when he was handcuffed and led out of a New York courtroom. He had earlier said he was "deeply sorry and ashamed".

The 70-year-old defrauded thousands of investors in a fraud he admitted had been running since the early 1990s.

"I cannot adequately express how sorry I am for what I have done," Madoff told the court. He said that when he started the fraud, he had hoped it would only be for a limited time.

"I realised that my arrest and this day would inevitably come," he said. While Madoff insists he acted alone, attention is now likely to switch to whether others at his company were involved.

"A lot of resources are being expended both to find assets and to find anyone else who might be responsible for this fraud," said prosecutor Marc Litt.

"It's impossible to believe that Mr Madoff did this by himself," William Galvin, secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, told the BBC.

Prior to having his bail revoked, Madoff had been under house arrest at his luxury Manhattan apartment.

 

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