Judge allows Bernard Madoff to remain free
NEW YORK -- A Manhattan judge rejected a bid to jail Bernard Madoff Monday, ruling that prosecutors hadn't showed enough proof the alleged operator of a $50 billion Ponzi scheme posed a risk of fleeing, obstructing justice or endangering the community.
But Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis. ordered that Madoff, 70, who sent more than $1 million in gifts to relatives and friends around the year-end holidays, is now formally barred from transferring any property as a new condition of his $10 million bail.
Ellis also ordered Madoff to give prosecutors an inventory of all valuable portable items in the $7 million Manhattan apartment where he's under house arrest.
A private security firm must update the inventory every two weeks, and prosecutors and defense lawyers must agree on the value of the items by next week, Ellis wrote in his 22-page decision.
Additionally, a private security firm approved by the government must search all outgoing Madoff mail to ensure that no property is transferred, the judge ruled.
"On this matter, the government has the burden of proof – by a preponderance of the evidence with respect to the question of flight, and by clear and convincing evidence with respect to question of danger – that there are no conditions which can be set to address these concerns," Ellis wrote of prosecutors request to jail Madoff pending a potential trial. "The court finds that the government has failed to meet its burden as to either ground."
Acting U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin declined to comment on the ruling.
"The decision speaks for itself, and we intend to comply with the judge's order," said Madoff defense attorney Ira Lee Sorkin..
The ruling heightened outrage among some victims of what may be the largest Ponzi scheme in history, an apparently decades-long scam that victimized investors worldwide.
"It is outrageous," said Bette Greenfield, 71, a Florida retiree who estimates her family trust lost $350,000 in the alleged Madoff scam. "Why should he have the comforts of living in a gorgeous place when so many others like me, will now have to sell our homes?"
