Madoff victims to speak at court hearing Thursday
NEW YORK -- At least 50 of Bernard Madoff's victims are expected to be in a federal courtroom Thursday, awaiting a chance to speak after his expected guilty plea to charges of masterminding a massive Ponzi scheme.
Under a protocol decided by U.S. District Judge Denny Chin, victims will be given "reasonable opportunity" speak about whether the court should accept a Madoff plea, and whether the disgraced financier should be allowed to remain out of jail pending sentencing.
Defense attorney Ira Lee Sorkin told Chin on Tuesday Madoff would likely plead guilty to all 11 of the criminal charges prosecutors filed against him, as demanded by federal prosecutors. A plea would carry a maximum penalty of 150 years in prison, plus financial restitution for victims and billions of dollars in fines and forfeitures.
Ronnie Sue Ambrosino, who says Madoff cheated her and husband Dominic out of their $1.6 million life savings, says she'll seek a chance to argue for more information before Chin decides on the plea.
"I'd like to know where the money is, and I'd like to know who else was involved," said Ambrosino. "I'd like to have these answers before the United States government accepts a plea from a man who's bringing our financial institutions to their knees."
After the expected plea, federal prosecutors may renew their effort to jail Madoff, who has been under house arrest in his Manhattan apartment on $10 million bail since January. In two prior decisions, judges ruled that prosecutors hadn't presented enough evidence that Madoff posed a flight risk or a danger to the community, the legal standards in bail decisions.
But after a Madoff guilty plea, "if the government moves to have him remanded, that's certainly something the judge could consider," said Richard Strassberg, a Goodwin Procter law partner and a former major crimes unit chief for the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office.
"The argument would be that the risk of flight is amplified by the likelihood he'll spend the rest of his life in jail," said Robert Mintz, a former federal prosecutor who's now a law partner at McCarter & English in New Jersey.
