Madoff gets 150 years

Link to the article: Channel 4 News

By Jonathan Rugman

Disgraced financier Bernie Madoff is sentenced to 150 years in prison for a huge investment fraud which lost investors $65bn.

The New York courtroom erupted in cheers and applause as the maximum possible prison sentence was imposed on the 71-year-old who committed the biggest investment fraud in Wall Street history.

Madoff stood facing the judge with his hands clasped in front of him as he learned his fate. Before his sentencing, Madoff addressed the court saying, "I cannot offer you an excuse for my behaviour.

"How do you excuse betraying thousands of investors who entrusted me with their life savings? I live in a tormented state now, knowing the pain and suffering I have created."

Earlier, the court heard statements from Madoff's victims, one of whom told him he was an "evil lowlife", while another declared his jail cell should be his coffin.

"How could somebody do this to us? How could this be real? We did nothing wrong," said Dominic Ambrosino, a retired New York City corrections officer.

Madoff confessed to running a multibillion-dollar "Ponzi scheme" in which investors were paid returns from money paid by later investors.

Investigators do not know how much in total was stolen, according to court papers. Prosecutors say $170bn flowed through the principal Madoff account over decades, and that weeks before the financier's December arrest the firm's statements showed a total of $65bn in accounts.

The trustee winding down the Madoff firm has so far collected $1.2bn to return to investors.

English councils sue RBS in US

Link to the article: Channel 4

Last Modified: 16 Mar 2009
By: Andrew Thomas

Royal Bank of Scotland is facing a class action law suit in New York as two English councils accuse the bank's board of misleading investors about the extent of its problems.

Merseyside and North Yorkshire councils are going to the courts in the US in an attempt to sue RBS for massive losses to their pension funds.

Madoff 'deeply sorry and ashamed'

Link to the article: Channel 4

Last Modified: 12 Mar 2009
By: Channel 4 News

Bernard Madoff pleads guilty to charges he orchestrated the biggest financial swindle in Wall Street history.

The former financier is charged with cheating investors out of billions of dollars in a fraud whose magnitude shocked the public and drew demands for stricter regulations.

"I cannot adequately express how sorry I am for what I have done," the gray-haired 70-year-old Madoff said as he pleaded guilty to 11 criminal charges.