Madoff 'deeply sorry and ashamed'
Updated on 12 March 2009
Bernard Madoff pleads guilty to charges he orchestrated the biggest financial swindle in Wall Street history.
Guilty of masterminding the world's biggest ever financial fraud, the disgraced American financier Bernard Madoff said he was "deeply sorry and ashamed" as prosecutors called for 150 years in jail.
At a court in New York, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 charges relating to the vast Ponzi scheme that cheated investors out of $65bn, admitting he had always known it was "criminal and wrong".
Some of his victims were in court, describing how they had lost everything and demanding to know where their money had gone.
The former financier is charged with cheating investors out of billions of dollars in a fraud whose magnitude shocked the public and drew demands for stricter regulations.
"I cannot adequately express how sorry I am for what I have done," the gray-haired 70-year-old Madoff said as he pleaded guilty to 11 criminal charges.
Victims speak out
Outside the court, victims of Madoff's Ponzi scheme tell of the effect the loss of their money has had on their lives.
Madoff, the disgraced money manager and former Nasdaq stock market chairman, described the long-running scheme as "criminal and wrong".
"I realised that my arrest and this day would inevitably come," he said in a Manhattan federal courthouse where victims of his Ponzi scheme were invited to speak.
Madoff's role in the scheme, which took in as much as $65bn over two decades before the 2008 market meltdown, could land him in prison for the rest of his life.
Speaking for 10 minutes, Madoff said he was "grateful" for the opportunity to talk and "deeply sorry and ashamed" of his actions.
Madoff, who stood to the left of his lawyer, hands draped at his side, admitted to securities fraud, investment adviser fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, false statements, perjury, false filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and theft from an employee benefit plan.
His investors included hedge funds, banks, Jewish charities, the wealthy, and small individual investors in North and South America and Europe.
Presiding Judge Denny Chin is due to sentence Madoff at a later date.
