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| Madoff Appeals Jailing |
| By wsj.com |
| Published: 03/17/2009 |
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By CHAD BRAY NEW YORK -- Confessed swindler Bernard L. Madoff asked a federal appeals court on Friday to overturn a judge's decision to send him to jail pending sentencing. In a court filing Friday, Mr. Madoff asked the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals to stay the order of detention and release him on bail. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan found Mr. Madoff was a risk to flee and revoked his bail on Thursday. Mr. Madoff asked that the appeal be heard on an expedited basis. A hearing before a three-judge appellate panel is set for March 19. Mr. Madoff's lawyers, Ira Sorkin and Dan Horwitz, argued in the filing that their client isn't a flight risk, noting his assets have been frozen, that he has previously complied with his bail conditions and that he "dutifully appeared" in court to plead guilty despite knowing he faced a lengthy prison term. "The district court's conclusion that Mr. Madoff is a flight risk is clearly erroneous," Messrs. Horwitz and Sorkin said. "The risk of Mr. Madoff's flight in this case is virtually zero because the lower court's previous bail orders set stringent safeguards to ensure that Mr. Madoff is both sufficiently dissuaded from fleeing and is closely monitored while detained in his home." Mr. Madoff, 70, pleaded guilty to 11 criminal charges and admitted to running a decades-long Ponzi scheme that bilked thousands of investors out of billions of dollars. He is expected to be sentenced in June and faces up to 150 years in prison. Shortly after his plea Thursday, Mr. Madoff was placed in handcuffs and taken to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. On Friday, Scott Sussman, a spokesman for the jail, declined comment on whether Mr. Madoff was being held in isolation or if he had joined the jail's general population. How did one of the largest financial scandals of our time go on for so long without being detected? WSJ reporters offer insight into Bernard Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme. In their filing, Mr. Madoff's lawyers also argued that other white-collar defendants facing lengthy jail sentences were allowed to stay free on bail pending sentencing -- namely former WorldCom Inc. Chief Executive Bernard J. Ebbers; Adelphia Communications Corp. founder John Rigas; and former Enron Corp. top executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling. "Unlike Mr. Madoff, these defendants avoided prison for years while they awaited trial, sentencing and, in some cases, appeal," Messrs. Sorkin and Horwitz said. "On the other hand, Mr. Madoff promptly pled guilty and has accepted responsibility for his wrongdoing. Mr. Madoff should, at the very least, receive the same treatment as these convicted defendants -- all of whom certainly had an incentive to flee -- and should be released pending sentencing." Legal experts said it's unlikely the appellate court would overturn Chin's order and release Mr. Madoff, adding the circuit would have to find that the judge abused his discretion in order to continue Mr. Madoff's bail. Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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