Madoff ordered to jail after pleading guilty to 11 felony charges
NEW YORK -- Saying he was "deeply sorry," Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to operating a massive Ponzi scheme, then was handcuffed and whisked away to jail as some of his angry victims applauded.
U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin rejected defense arguments to allow Madoff to remain under house arrest on $10 million bail, saying that the 70-year-old disgraced financier's age and wealth gave him the incentive and means to flee the maximum 150-year prison sentence he now faces.
Chin set sentencing for June 16. Besides prison, Madoff faces billions of dollars in restitution, fines and forfeitures.
Ira Lee Sorkin, Madoff's lead defense lawyer, said he would immediately appeal the remand order.
Dressed in a gray suit and lighter gray tie, Madoff stood and firmly repeated "guilty" 11 times as Chin ran through each count of securities fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, perjury and other charges against him.
The plea came after Madoff, whose arrest on Dec. 11 set off a wave of financial pain and even ruin for charities, celebrities, hedge funds, trusts and ordinary investors, spoke out about his criminal scam in detail for the first time.
"I am actually grateful for this first opportunity to publicly speak about my crimes, for which I am so deeply sorry and ashamed," he said inside the packed 24th-floor federal courthouse in lower Manhattan.
Speaking quietly yet firmly, Madoff told the hushed courtroom he initially believed he would be able to end the scam quickly, but "this proved difficult and ultimately impossible."
"As the years went by, I realized my arrest and this day would inevitably come," said Madoff. "I am painfully aware that I have deeply hurt many, many people, including the members of my family, my closest friends, business associates and the thousands of clients who gave me their money."
"I cannot adequately express how sorry I am for what I have done," he added.
Although prosecutors charge that the scam began at least as far back as the 1980s, Madoff in court pegged its origin to the early 1990s.
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