Disgraced New York financier Bernard Madoff has been sent to jail while he awaits sentencing on a massive financial fraud scheme that he pleaded guilty to on Thursday morning.
U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin denied bail for the 70-year-old Madoff on the basis that a man of his advanced age and financial means would be motivated and able to flee from prosecution.
In court, the former Nasdaq chairman said he "cannot adequately express" how sorry he is and said he began his massive Ponzi scheme in the early 1990s, believing that it would only be a short period of time before he could extricate himself.
Since then, prosecutors allege Madoff stole tens of billions of dollars from investors, of which authorities have so far managed to recover only US$1 billion.
"I am actually grateful for this opportunity to publicly comment about my crimes, for which I am deeply sorry and ashamed," Madoff said in court.
"As the years went by, I realized my risk and this day would inevitably come. I cannot adequately express how sorry I am for my crimes."
Madoff faces up to 150 years in prison for the 11 criminal counts he pleaded guilty to on Thursday, which included fraud, perjury, theft from an employee benefit plan and two counts of international money laundering.
His sentencing is scheduled for June 16.
While authorities had initially pegged the damage from Madoff's fraud at $50 billion, court documents filed earlier this week set the size of the fraud to $64.8 billion. Experts have suggested that the total loss is likely much less than that, because the damage may be estimated on false profits that Madoff promised his investors.
Authorities must still determine how exactly Madoff perpetuated his fraud, but court documents indicate that prosecutors believe he had assistance from some of his employees.
Court documents suggest the fraudster hired people with little or no securities training to generate fraudulent documents and account statements. The money was never invested, prosecutors said, but instead used to pay back prior investors and used by his business and others.
Prior to his jailing on Thursday, Madoff has been under house arrest since early December, living in a ritzy Manhattan apartment, worth $7 million that he purchased in 1984. He often wore a bullet-proof vest when appearing in court.
He was charged after authorities learned that he had admitted to his sons that he had been running a Ponzi scheme for years -- a type of fraud that relies on using money from new investors to pay back prior investors.
The fraud is named for Charles Ponzi, the infamous Italian fraudster who bilked Boston-area investors out of millions at the dawn of the 1920s.
Madoff's plea comes only three months after he admitted his well-respected investment fund was actually a well-orchestrated and devastating scam.
Thousands of investors, including private citizens, major charities and even Hollywood heavyweights like director Steven Spielberg and actors Kevin Bacon and John Malkovich, came forward to say they had been victimized by Madoff's fraudulent fund.
The British bank HSBC was believed to be one of Madoff's largest victims, losing about $1 billion.
In at least one confirmed case, one of Madoff's victims took his own life after finding out that he had been scammed.
Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, a 65-year-old fund manager, was found dead at his Manhattan office on Dec. 23, 2008, with both of his wrists slashed. A box cutter was found nearby and a bottle of sleeping pills on his desk.
De la Villehuchet, a respected financier, lost more than $1 billion of his clients' money, and took his own life less than two weeks after authorities first laid charges against Madoff.
With files from The Associated Press
