Judge Jails Madoff, Accepts Guilty Plea

By Jeralyn, Section Crime in the News
Posted on Thu Mar 12, 2009 at 10:21:00 AM EST
Tags: Bernard Madoff (all tags)

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Final Update: Here's the statement Madoff made in court today (pdf). Here's the transcript of today's plea hearing (pdf)

Update: 11:16 am: Sentencing will be June 16. The Government asked for immediate jailing. CNBC and CNN report the Judge said he intends to grant the request and order Madoff into custody immediately. It's done.

Update 10:55 am: The Judge has accepted the guilty plea. The Government is telling the judge how the scheme operated. The victims who object to the plea are now being heard. Next issue should be bail.

Update: 10:47 am ET: CNBC Updates: [More...]

"The victims of my schemes included individuals, charities, pension funds and hedge funds."....Madoff made a distinction between his investment business which was the fraud and the other businesses which he said were legit. "The other businesses were legitimate, profitable ...in all respects and those businesses were run by my brother and my sons," said Madoff.
Madoff also said he "knowingly gave false testimony under oath" to the SEC, and admitted "my fraud was (submitting) audited reports to the SEC." And Madoff said "My clients ... receiving account statements had no way of knowing ..." what he was doing.

Update: 10:35 am ET: Via AP Twitter: Madoff says the Ponzi scheme began in the early 1990s in response to a recession. Via Reuters Twitter:

Madoff says for many years he operated a Ponzi scheme and tells court he is "deeply ashamed for my crimes"

Update: 10:11 am ET: The hearing is underway. He's pleading guilty as expected.

Bump and Update: 9:30 a.m. ET: The hearing begins at 10:00 am. Here is the Judge's press release on how it will proceed. The DOJ's webpage for Madoff with lots of links is here. The transcript of Tuesday's hearing is here (pdf.) As to who is live-blogging from the courthouse: AmLaw is one. I'm also following others on Twitter.