NEW YORK (AP) – A dying Ponzi king Bernard Madoff lost his bid for early release from prison Thursday when the judge who sentenced him to 150 years behind bars said he intended for him to die there and nothing has happened in the last 11 years to change his mind.
Judge Denny Chin, who now sits on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, noted the continuing suffering of Madoff’s thousands of victims who lost $17.5 billion when a decades-long scheme that deceived them into thinking their money was invested properly was exposed in December 2008.
“I also believe that Mr. Madoff was never truly remorseful, and that he was only sorry that his life as he knew it was collapsing around him. Even at the end, he was trying to send more millions of his ill-gotten gains to family members, friends, and certain employees,” Chin wrote.
The judge said he’d reviewed public statements made by Madoff, 82, and found they “show that he has never fully accepted responsibility for his actions and that he even faults his victims.”
Madoff, housed at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina, through his lawyers had requested compassionate release, which lets some prisoners go home if they are likely to die within 18 months.