Madoff's lawyer pleads for a short sentence

Ira Sorkin, the lawyer of the once Wall Street wizard Bernard Madoff, wrote a letter to Judge Denny Chin to ask for a 12-year prison term.

In the letter, he wrote a 12-year sentence should be reasonable because Madoff will be dead in 13 years. Madoff faces a maximum sentence of 150 years and a mandatory restitution of US$170 billion as the government has confirmed his gross gain and loss from his Ponzi scheme was US$ 65 billion. Sorkin also suggested Madoff should get credit to liquidate part of his assets in order to offset a fraction of the victims' losses. At least eight of the victims have told the judge to put Madoff in prison for the rest of his life, and loads of furious emails from over 100 victims have been sent to the court, including death threats and anti-Semitic statements. Madoff was arrested in December last year due to the security fraud. In March, he pleaded guilty to 11 crimes including money laundering, wire fraud and perjury. His high-profile victims include actor Keven Bacon, L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt and Nobel Peace prize winner Elie Wiesel.