世界金融歷史上最大的金融欺詐案主犯伯納德?麥道夫29日被紐約南區聯邦法院判處150年監禁，現年71歲的麥道夫將在監獄里度過他的余生。麥道夫詐騙案涉及金額超過600億美元，為世界金融歷史上最大的“龐氏騙局”。去年12月，麥道夫因涉嫌金融詐騙被逮捕。今年3月，麥道夫在紐約曼哈頓聯邦地區法院出庭時接受了檢方11項犯罪指控，他對所有犯罪指控供認不諱，其中包括證券欺詐、洗錢、偽證等。
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Convicted fraudster Bernard Madoff will die behind bars after being sentenced to 150 years in jail for orchestrating the largest fraud America has ever seen.
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Convicted fraudster Bernard Madoff will die behind bars after being sentenced to 150 years in jail for orchestrating the largest fraud America has ever seen.
Dressed in a dark suit, Madoff, who admitted in March to running a $65bn (￡40bn) Ponzi scheme for the past three decades, will serve 150 years, Denny Chin, a US District Judge, told a packed courtroom in New York.
Judge Chin said that the 'symbolism' of the sentence is important. Madoff, who kept his eyes down during much of the testimony, told the court that "I don't ask for any forgiveness."
The 71-year-old former money manager, whose defense lawyer last week pleaded for him to serve a total of 12 years, has come for many to symbolize the greed and excess of the financial boom.
Several of his victims got the chance to tell their stories in court. Dominic Ambrosino, a former prison officer, told the court that he and his wife Ronnie Sue had their "entire life savings wiped out". Madoff kept his eyes down as his victims spoke.
A sizable proportion of his victims were middle-class public school teachers, farmers and mechanics. Many are now struggling to pay their bills.
Victims of the so-called Ponzi scheme stretched from celebrities, including film director Steven Spielberg and actor Kevin Bacon, to a string of high-profile financial institutions such as Spain's Santander.
In total, about 1,341 account holders lost out in the classic “cash in, cash out” fraud, according to court papers. The scheme lured new investors with the promise of large returns, and used that cash to deliver the returns to earlier investors.
Named after Charles Ponzi - who ran such a fraud in America in the 1920s - the scheme eventually collapsed when the credit crisis prompted investors to withdraw their funds.
Today's sentencing is the latest chapter in the Madoff fraud that has unravelled with lightning speed since December. He first confessed to his two sons, Mark and Andrew, that month before telling a FBI agent that there was no “innocent explanation”.
After three months under house arrest he pleaded guilty to 11 counts of fraud, mail and money laundering in March, at which point Judge Chin revoked his bail. Madoff has spent the past three months in a 7.5ft by 8ft cell in the high-security wing of Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Centre.
Born to a Jewish family in New York on April 29, 1938, Madoff founded Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities with the 5,000 dollars he had saved at the age of 22, before branching into investment banking and a hedge fund business.
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(Agencies)
（英語點津 Helen 編輯）
