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Madoff victims describe pain of fraud to judge

More than 100 victims of failed financier Bernard Madoff’s ­multibillion‑dollar fraud urged a judge on Monday to sentence him harshly, saying he ruined their lives, leaving many of them depressed, bitter and hopeless.

In 113 statements, the victims from across the US repeatedly referred to the 71-year-old Madoff as a “monster” who, as one victim put it, has “no soul, no remorse, no conscience.”

Letter after letter urged US District Judge Denny Chin to sentence Madoff to the maximum 150 years in prison after he pleaded guilty in March to securities fraud, perjury and other charges.

Madoff, who has been jailed since he entered his guilty plea, is scheduled to be sentenced on June 29.

Thousands of people lost billions of dollars investing with Madoff, who authorities say confessed to his sons in early December that he had been running a giant Ponzi scheme for decades in which early investors were paid with money collected from later investors.

In the letters, victims urged Chin to show no mercy for the man they described alternately as “wicked,” “cruel,” “amoral,” “heartless, “ruthless” and “arrogant.” One letter called Madoff one of the most hated men in the world.

Some of them criticized the government for not doing more to help them. And they reacted angrily at being portrayed in some published reports as greedy, saying they passed up riskier investments that promised higher returns for the steady profits reported by Madoff.

They also urged investigators to keep pursuing probes of Madoff’s family members on the belief that some of them had to know about the fraud or had a role in it.

Ira Sorkin, Madoff’s lawyer, said any comment he would make in response to the letters would be made in writing to the judge prior to the sentencing.

Dozens of retired investors said they were forced to look for work to survive after the loss of their investments had forced them to put their homes up for sale. Several said they had heard of suicides as a result of the extreme anguish caused by the loss of life savings.

“I can use every superlative in the dictionary, but none would suffice to tell you how damaging Madoff’s scheme was,” a letter from Ronnie Sue and Dominic Ambrosino said.

Ronnie Sue Ambrosino said the couple had so much faith in Madoff that they put their entire life savings in his hands and even took out a loan to buy a motor home rather than pay for it outright because they did not want to withdraw any of their money from Madoff.

She said when she learned of Madoff fraud she felt numb.

Kathleen Bignell of Gunnison, Colorado, said she told her 89-year-old father he cannot die because she no longer has money to bury him.

Morton Chalek of Port Jefferson Station, New York, wrote: “I am 86 years old. I have a broken knee, I have lung cancer and thanks to Madoff, I am now bankrupt.”
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