Bulletproof Bernie: Gov't Effort to Revoke Madoff Bail Again Bounces Off

Madoff, for decades, allegedly scammed thousands of sophisticated investors as well as middle class professionals who had bet their retirement well-being on him. On the world's pricier golf courses, and in the dining rooms of some of the world's more exclusive country clubs, "Madoff" was whispered from doctor to banker to lawyer to investment manager as if the Bernard L. Madoff fund was the gold standard of investments: a place so secure that double digit returns came in annually for decades with nary a bad season; a club so exclusive that money was turned away.

Bernard Madoff, founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, wears a bullet proof vest as...

Bernard Madoff, founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, wears a bullet proof vest as he walks through the security screening area at federal court in New York, U.S., Jan. 14, 2009.Madoff arrived to attend a hearing in Manhattan federal court where U.S. prosecutors plan to challenge a magistrate's decision allowing him to remain free on bail, a defense lawyer said.

(Gino Domenico/Bloomberg News/Landov)

He is currently confined, except for court appearances, to his Manhattan cooperative apartment. There is an armed security guard on duty at all times, video cameras recording visitors at both the front and rear entrances, and Madoff also wears an electronic security ankle bracelet that would instantly notify the U.S. Marshals or the FBI if he attempted to leave the premises without permission and an escort.

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Litt argued that was not enough. He said that three packages Madoff and his wife, Ruth Madoff, mailed to their sons and daughter's in-law, his grandchildren and a couple in Florida containing watches and other heirloom jewelry worth about a million dollars was further proof that Madoff "cannot be trusted under any set of conditions short of detention."

Defense attorney Ira Lee Sorkin said the government is using "inflammatory rhetoric and hyperbole" to make a flimsy argument and called the gifts an innocent mistake. He also pointed out that all of Madoff's corporate assets were under the control of government-appointed trustees and receivers and his business had been shut down. In addition, according to court papers that Sorkin alluded to, Ruth Madoff had signed confessions of judgment and agreed to limit her spending to a monthly amount agreed upon with and monitored by the government and secured her husband's bail with three multimillion dollar properties in her name.

Sorkin said mailing of jewelry and watches was a "desperate and futile attempt to reconnect" with family and friends.