A U.S. federal judge on Friday allowed investors to force Bernard Madoff, the swindler behind a purported 65-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme, into bankruptcy.
Although U.S. federal prosecutors, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Trustee for the Liquidation of Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities LLC opposed the bankruptcy proposal, U.S. District Court Judge Louis Stanton ruled that the alleged victims could go after Madoff's assets that were not proceeds from his crimes.
The judge, of the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, said the U.S. bankruptcy code is the best and most experienced system to deal with the claims against Madoff's assets, excluding those that prosecutors may force him to forfeit as proceeds from a crime.
U.S. federal prosecutors and the SEC have argued that it would be "unnecessary and costly" for the convicted financier to file for personal bankruptcy.
Madoff is former non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange who was convicted of operating a Ponzi scheme that has been called the largest investor fraud ever committed by a single person.
On March 12, Madoff pled guilty to an 11-count criminal complaint, admitting to defrauding thousands of investors. Federal prosecutors estimated client losses, which included fabricated gains, of almost 65 billion dollars. He had been confined to his Manhattan penthouse apartment during the investigation, and was subsequently incarcerated after his guilty plea. There was no plea deal with prosecutors. He faces spending the rest of his life in prison, and up to 170 billion dollars in restitution.
Source: Xinhua
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