27/06/2009

Disgraced financier Madoff ordered to forfeit over $170b

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1095936.html

Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff has been ordered to forfeit over $170 billion for orchestrating perhaps the largest financial swindle in history, prosecutors said Friday.

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin entered a preliminary order of forfeiture Friday, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin. The order forces Madoff to give up his interests in all property, including real estate, investments, cars and boats.

According to earlier court documents, prosecutors reserved the right to pursue more than $170 billion in criminal forfeiture. That represents the total amount of money that could be connected to the fraud, not the amount stolen or lost.

The government also settled claims against Madoff's wife, according to Friday's order. Under the arrangement, the government obtained Ruth Madoff's interest in all property, including more than $80 million of property to which she had claimed was hers, prosecutors said.

The order makes it clear, though, that nothing precludes other departments or entities from seeking to recover additional funds

The agreements strip the Madoffs of all their interest in properties belonging to them, including a homes in Manhattan, Montauk, and Palm Beach, Fla., worth a total of nearly $22 million.

New York prosecutors seek 150-year sentence for Madoff

Meanwhile, federal prosecutors said in court papers Friday that Madoff should receive a 150-year sentence.

"The sheer scale of the fraud calls for severe punishment," the prosecutors wrote in response to a defense motion seeking lighter punishment.

Madoff, 71, is due to be sentenced Monday after pleading guilty in March to charges that his exclusive investment advisory business was actually a massive pyramid scheme.

Federal sentencing guidelines allow for the 150-year term, prosecutors said. Any lesser sentence, they added, should still be long enough to send a forceful message and assure that Madoff will remain in prison for life.

The government's papers quoted from letters to U.S. District Judge Denny Chin written by victims of the scheme who are suffering severe hardships.

"Madoff ruined lives," one letter said. "He deserves no mercy."

At the time of Madoff's arrest, fictitious account statements showed thousands of clients had $65 billion. But investigators say he never traded securities, and instead used money from new investors to pay returns to existing clients.

Prosecutors said Friday that the total losses, which span decades, haven't been calculated. But 1,341 accounts opened since December 1995 alone suffered loses of $13.2 billion, they said.

Madoff attorney Ira Sorkin argued in court papers last week for a 12-year
term. He said his client deserved credit for his voluntary surrender, full
acceptance of responsibility and meaningful cooperation efforts.

"We seek neither mercy nor sympathy," Sorkin wrote. But he urged the judge to set aside the emotion and hysteria attendant to this case as he determines the sentence.