No appeal for Madoff

Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff will not appeal against his 150-year jail sentence for fraud.

The fraud emerged last December when former Nasdaq chief Madoff confessed to his sons that nearly $65bn (€46bn) he promised investors was safe was actually only worth a few hundred million.

“We won’t be appealing the sentence,” Madoff’s lawyer, Ira Sorkin, said last night. He would not say why the decision was made.

Rebekah Carmichael, a prosecutor’s spokeswoman, declined to comment.

Madoff, 71, was sentenced last week after admitting fleecing thousands of investors out of billions of dollars – an epic scheme that spanned the globe, according to a report released today by a court-appointed trustee.

The report by Irving Picard – responsible for identifying Madoff assets that could be used to compensate victims – said the search “has unearthed a labyrinth of interrelated international funds, institutions and entities of almost unparalleled complexity and breadth”.

The report said the trustee had located assets and businesses “of interest” in 11 places: Britain, Ireland, France, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Spain, Gibraltar, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas. It also said he had sent more than 230 subpoenas seeking overseas records.

More than 15,400 claims against Madoff were filed by a July 2 deadline, the trustee said. He noted there were multiple claims from several accounts.

At his sentencing, Madoff apologised to the victims, describing his fraud as a “problem”, “an error of judgment” and “a tragic mistake”.

He said he and his wife Ruth were tormented, saying she “cries herself to sleep every night, knowing all the pain and suffering I have caused”.

Last Friday, Ruth Madoff was forced out of the Manhattan penthouse where the couple primarily lived, although they also had homes in the Hamptons (Long Island), Florida and France. Those homes and several yachts, together worth tens of millions of dollars, are being sold to reimburse investors.

Despite the efforts to liquidate his estate, it was expected that investors will receive only a small portion of the billions they originally invested.