Ponzi scheme mastermind Madoff won’t appeal 150-year prison sentence

Arch swindler Bernard Madoff won’t appeal his 150-year prison sentence, his attorney said on Thursday.

Accused swindler Bernard Madoff exits the Manhattan federal court house in New York , in this Jan. 14, 2009 file photo. Madoff took the first public step to a guilty plea on criminal charges of running a 50 billion U.S. dollars investment fraud over many years, according to court papers March 6, 2009.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Financier Bernard Madoff, 71, pleaded guilty to 11 criminal counts in the biggest investment fraud in history. He was sentenced on June 29 for masterminding the largest U.S. Ponzi scheme ever.

“We are not going to be appealing,” Madoff’s main lawyer Ira Lee Sorkin said. “That’s our decision and we have no further comment.”

Prosecutors said the money manager told clients they had as much as 65 billion dollars invested with him. The government has so far documented losses of about 13 billion dollars.

Madoff is now jailed in a prison about 70 miles northwest of New York City that houses 1,100 inmates.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet