Madoff gets 150 years
Updated on 29 June 2009
Disgraced financier Bernie Madoff is sentenced to 150 years in prison for a huge investment fraud which lost investors $65bn.
The New York courtroom erupted in cheers and applause as the maximum possible prison sentence was imposed on the 71-year-old who committed the biggest investment fraud in Wall Street history.
Madoff stood facing the judge with his hands clasped in front of him as he learned his fate. Before his sentencing, Madoff addressed the court saying, "I cannot offer you an excuse for my behaviour.
"How do you excuse betraying thousands of investors who entrusted me with their life savings? I live in a tormented state now, knowing the pain and suffering I have created."
Earlier, the court heard statements from Madoff's victims, one of whom told him he was an "evil lowlife", while another declared his jail cell should be his coffin.
"How could somebody do this to us? How could this be real? We did nothing wrong," said Dominic Ambrosino, a retired New York City corrections officer.
Madoff confessed to running a multibillion-dollar "Ponzi scheme" in which investors were paid returns from money paid by later investors.
Investigators do not know how much in total was stolen, according to court papers. Prosecutors say $170bn flowed through the principal Madoff account over decades, and that weeks before the financier's December arrest the firm's statements showed a total of $65bn in accounts.
The trustee winding down the Madoff firm has so far collected $1.2bn to return to investors.
