Investigators working on the massive Bernard Madoff Ponzi scam are hoping for more time to determine the full amount of claims and the number of defrauded investors.
Reuters explained that investigators noted that the request for additional time should, in no way, delay Madoff’s sentencing, which is scheduled for June 29, citing U.S. prosecutors and court papers. “The requested order would permit the June 29 sentencing to proceed as scheduled, while allowing the effort to identify victims and losses to proceed apace,” the court document said, reported Reuters.
On March 12, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 fraud counts in what is believed to be the largest Ponzi scheme in history. Last November, Madoff told his investors that his fund held more than $65 billion, but in reality, he only had a fraction of that amount. Since his guilty plea, Madoff has been held at the Manhattan Correctional Center and faces up to 150 years in prison. About $13 billion was lost by 1,341 as of December 11, 2008, when Madoff was arrested by the FBI, reported Reuters, citing the document.
The recently filed documents seek a three-month delay on a restitution decision, said Reuters, which pointed out that the delay would enable prosecutors to provide an approximate restitution amount. According to the government, in a fraud case, restitution is “mandatory” to those “directly and proximately harmed,” quoted Reuters.
The delay request involves microfilm records that were just found and which date as far back as 1979, reported Reuters, citing court papers. The court-appointed trustee who is closing out Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC in order to return money to thousands of defrauded investors found the microfilm, which must be transferred into digital format and then analyzed, said Reuters. In its request, the government also referred to “difficulties presented in the reconstruction of the record of defendant’s fraud and victim loss in this case—difficulties caused by the condition of the records kept by the defendant, as well as the scope and duration of the fraud.”
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