Bernard Madoff, the convicted fraudster behind the largest Ponzi scheme in history, has said he is dying of kidney failure and is seeking early release from his 150-year prison sentence.
In a court filing Madoff’s lawyer said the 81-year-old uses a wheelchair, often requires oxygen, and suffers from cardiovascular disease, hypertension, insomnia and other chronic and serious medical conditions. He is too old for a transplant and has been moved to the Federal medical center prison in Butner, North Carolina.
Madoff was arrested in December 2008 after authorities exposed a decades-long scheme in which the self-styled investment guru scammed thousands of people out of their life savings.
Prosecutors said Madoff’s firm, Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities, swindled individuals, charities, pension funds and hedge funds out of $64.8bn.
At Madoff’s sentencing in 2009, Judge Denny Chin called his crimes “extraordinarily evil”. At least four people connected to Madoff, including his son Mark, killed themselves.
“Madoff does not dispute the severity of his crimes, nor does he seek to minimize the suffering of his victims,” his lawyer, Brandon Sample, wrote in the filing. “Madoff humbly asks this court for a modicum of compassion.”
Madoff is perhaps the most prominent federal prisoner to seek “compassionate release” under the First Step Act, a bipartisan law signed by Donald Trump in 2018 that lets some older prisoners end their sentences early, often for health reasons.
Last year he asked Trump to commute his sentence. Trump, who had yet to act, has said that Madoff once tried to get him to invest with him. ““No thanks, I can lose my own money,” Trump said he told Madoff in an interview with the New York Times.
A spokesman for the US attorney Geoffrey Berman in Manhattan, whose office prosecuted Madoff, said that office would respond to the filing.
Madoff’s request will be considered by Chin, who meted out a sentence that was three times as long as the federal probation office had suggested.
Reuters contributed reporting
In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 800-273-8255. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org. In Canada, the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention has a list of crisis centre hotlines. Other international suicide helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org
