Madoff Pleads Guilty to Financial Fraud

Bernard Madoff, 70, infamous fraudulent Wall Street fund manager and NASDAQ chairman, announced the intent to plead guilty to all eleven counts of felony financial fraud in Thursday’s court hearing.

All counts of securities fraud and perjury tried against Madoff carry a maximum prison sentence of 150 years under sentencing guidelines.

“There is nothing in the charges to suggest that Mark and Andrew Madoff had any knowledge of the fraud or that market making and proprietary trading were anything other than legitimate businesses,” said attorney for Mark and Andrew Madoff, Martin Flumenbaum, Wednesday.

Earlier this year we reported that Madoff confessed to his sons that his financial enterprise was fraudulent. The sons’ lawyer reported the issue to authorities.

Questions still remain as to what will happen with Ruth Madoff, Bernard’s wife’s, fortune. She claimed earlier this week that $69 million worth of assets were ‘unrelated’ to the financial fraud and could not be confiscated to refund investors.

Additionally, the size of the financial fraud has increased — U.S. prosecutors estimated Wednesday that the total direct cost of the scheme was closer to $65 billion than the original estimates of $40-$50 billion back in December. Reportedly, Bernard Madoff Investment Securities had 4,800 unique client accounts worldwide.

No plea agreement has been made, says Madoff’s attorney, Marc Litt.

Victims are expected to be heard in court prior to sentencing, which is unlikely to occur this week.

The case can be found USA vs. Madoff 09-213 in the U.S. District Court of Manhattan.

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