In a statement issued by his lawyer Ira Lee Sorkin, self confessed fraudster Bernard Madoff has confirmed that he will not be appealing against the 150 year prison term that was imposed on him by a New York court on June 29.
It was estimated that investors lost something like $65 billion to the Ponzi scheme that 71 year old Madoff operated for at least 20 years, money that the vast majority of them will never see again. The jubilation that many of Madoff's victims felt at the sentence he received will probably now be met by a sense of relief that he has decided not to challenge the decision of court.
Madoff's wife Ruth was last week forced to leave the penthouse, said to be worth $7 million, she shared with her husband in Manhattan. As the
Minneapolis Star Tribune reports, that home, together with others the couple owned in the Hamptons, Florida and France will be sold, along with a number of yachts that also belonged to them, and the proceeds used to repay their investors. However, those proceeds will only represent a very small part of the billions of dollars that were lost by large numbers of people.
The statement issued on Madoff's behalf was very brief and went into no details whatsoever as to the reasons for the decision not to appeal. It simply read:
We are not going to be appealing. That's our decision and we have no further comment.
No comment was forthcoming from the Prosecutor's office regarding today's announcement.
