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Jailed Bernard Madoff breaks his silence to say 'sorry'
Justin Davenport12 Mar 2009
Bernard Madoff was jailed today after pleading guilty to masterminding the biggest fraud in Wall Street history.
Amid extraordinary scenes, the former Nasdaq stock market chairman said he was “deeply sorry” for his crimes as he stood in the dock of a New York federal court.
Madoff, 70, spoke for the first time about the alleged $64.8 billion (£47 billion) fraud saying he knew he would eventually be arrested. He now faces spending the rest of his life in jail.
Judge Denny Chin ordered that he be immediately jailed to await sentencing saying: “He has incentive to flee, he has the means to flee, and thus he presents the risk of flight. Bail is revoked.”
Madoff's admissions could open the way for a prosecution in Britain. He is believed to have laundered £181 million through his family's private investment vehicle, run from offices in Berkeley Street in Mayfair.
Today the disgraced Wall Street financier told the Manhattan court: “I cannot adequately express how sorry I am for what I have done.”
Speaking for 10 minutes, Madoff said he was “grateful” for the opportunity to talk and “deeply sorry and ashamed” of his actions.
He described a long-running scheme that he knew from the beginning was “criminal and wrong” but hoped would end shortly. As he became more deeply engaged in the fraud, he said: “I realised that my arrest and this day would inevitably come.”
Listening in the courthouse were some of the hundreds of victims of his pyramid scheme who had been invited to speak after Madoff's plea.
Madoff, who stood to the left of his lawyer, hands by his side, admitted securities fraud, investment adviser fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, making false statements, perjury, false filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and theft from an employee benefit plan. His investors included hedge funds, banks, Jewish charities, the wealthy, and small individual investors in North and South America and Europe.
Among those who lost money are Hollywood star Kevin Bacon, author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar.
Today some US TV stations, broadcasting live, followed Madoff's vehicle by helicopter when it left the apartment building where he has been under house arrest.
The media frenzy surrounding Madoff has swelled as he became one of the most vilified people in America, a major symbol of the financial crisis.
John Coffee, professor at Columbia Law School in New York, speaking about Madoff's victims, said: “This is not going to be a quiet, sober, dignified group. I think this is going to be a bloodthirsty mob.”
Madoff is accused of running an unprecedented global financial fraud known as a Ponzi scheme which took in as much as $65 billion over two decades before the market meltdown last year.
He took money from clients on the promise of huge returns — in some cases up to 46 per cent. But instead of investing the money, he used deposits from new clients to pay out false profits to existing investors.
Madoff described how he had become caught up in the fraud saying: “I believed it would end shortly and I would be able to extricate myself and my clients from the scheme.”
One of his victim told the court it should not accept Madoff's plea. Maureen Ebel, said: “If we go to trial we have more of a chance to comprehend the global scope of this horrendous crime. We can hear and bear witness to the pain that Mr Madoff has inflicted on the young, the old and the infirm.”
Investigators are trying to trace where the billions have gone. Much is believed to have been siphoned through the Mayfair business to pay for a wealthy lifestyle and make it appear Madoff was running a legitimate business.
Reader views (11)
John W,
Each additional new deposit was used to repay the returns from previous investors. So all the new money gets paid out straight away. That way, people actually made money as the scheme was operating. The problem comes when there isn't a supply of new money to pay the returns due, then you have a large pool of expectant investors with no means of getting the return and no means of getting their investment back.
Jon
- Jon, London, UK, 13/03/2009 07:55
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He's sorry. He's in handcuffs. He's going to jail for the rest of his life (hopefully). Doesn't make a damn bit of difference. Go after the assets of his family - no one can tell me they were ignorant of the scam. No one, they knew and they profited and said nothing. Take those assets and spread them out to the oldest and most impoverished investors. Oh, by the way folks, if it looks to good to be true, it IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. You folks were greedy too.
- Mary, Pittsburgh, USA, 13/03/2009 01:00
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throw the key away on him. don't wasting time.
- Vandam, nyc USA, 12/03/2009 23:46
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So much shame on him. His extreme lifestyle was ridiculous! Repenting and apologizing seem to be the right thing to do now, but what about all the other "humans" he left behind in his race to be such an exclusive financier? People were lined up to give you their money, and they trusted him to invest it, not steal it. So sad to hear about all of this; I feel bad for everyone affected by this, but mostly I feel sorry for this pitiful person.
- Laurie P., Austin, TX, 12/03/2009 23:30
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You can bet Madoff is the fall-guy and merely the tip of a very, very big iceberg. It's a cinch he's been left with no option but to take the rap and cop an uncontested guilty plea - in order to stifle speculation and save other much, much bigger fish from joining him in the public frypan...!!!
- Joanna Jay, Walton on Thames, 12/03/2009 22:48
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And his wife never knew? oi veh
- Annabelle, london, 12/03/2009 22:14
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sorry for what?
not getting away with it.
- M.O'Brien, london.uk, 12/03/2009 17:37
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Mick's assessment of the fraud is bang on! How is a return of 46% possible? That said, sounds very familar to the housing boom in the UK of late, with endless dinner party chat of "we bought for x three years ago, and now is worth 3x. We're so clever".
- Marto, london, 12/03/2009 17:15
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Usually if you take money and spend it, this money cannot easily be retrieved, but given the funds were not reinvested, where did billions actually go? I cannot imagine that it is easy to spend a billion dollars, for example, Bill Gates has to fund a sizable operation simply to give his billions away.
- John W, Ottawa, Canada, 12/03/2009 17:11
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Perhaps they should cut his 150 year sentence in half for having the guts to plead guilty. Would that more criminals did plead guilty and admit to their mistakes and not waste the time and patience of the honest tax payer by a pointless trial.
- Dhanraj, basildon, 12/03/2009 16:50
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There is no such thing as a free lunch. Rich people who had loads of money ignored common sense and gave it to this man because they were greedy. They wanted more than a fair return on their investment. Unfortunately for them they gave it to a man who was greedier then them.
- Mick, London, England, 12/03/2009 16:39
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