Madoff in court for bail

NEW YORK – Prosecutors asked a federal judge Tuesday to jail besieged financier Bernard Madoff, saying he tried to pick ‘winners and losers’ in his US$50 billion fraud when he and his wife shipped more than US$1 million in jewellery to relatives and friends over the holidays.

Assistant US Attorney Marc Litt said in a letter to US District Judge Lawrence M. McKenna that there were no conditions of bail that will ensure the 70-year-old former Nasdaq chairman is not a danger to do financial harm to the community and a risk to flee.
‘No matter the loss amount determined by the sentencing court, it appears that defendant will not be able to come remotely close to having the resources necessary to make his victims whole,’ Litt wrote. ‘Accordingly, every possible penny of the defendant’s assets must be protected from dissipation.’
Madoff was scheduled to be at a hearing before the judge yesterday afternoon, two days after a magistrate judge ruled that he could remain in his US$7 million penthouse despite government claims he was trying to disperse valuable jewellery and watches to close relatives and friends.
‘By doing so, the defendant showed that he would not be deterred in his efforts to pick the winners and losers of his fraudulent scheme,’ Litt said.
Within hours of a ruling Monday by US Magistrate Judge Ronald L. Ellis, prosecutors notified the court that they would appeal the decision to a federal judge. The hearing yesterday was to focus on the appeal.
The hearing comes as investigators continue to dig through Madoff’s financial records. Prosecutors noted in court papers Monday that the defence and representatives of the government had been engaging in discussions concerning a possible disposition of the case.
Though the wording is customary in a document outlining an agreement by prosecutors and defence lawyers extending the deadline for an indictment, it frequently occurs in cases that end with pleas rather than trials.
‘The only thing I will say now is we are cooperating with the government,’ defence lawyer Ira Sorkin said Tuesday.
On Monday, Ellis had ordered a tightening of Madoff’s US$10 million bail conditions to require that his outgoing mail be monitored by a security firm and that an inventory be made of any valuables in his Upper East Side apartment. Madoff already was confined to his apartment with electronic monitoring and 24-hour guard.
Litt said the new conditions were not enough.
‘The defendant, based on his prior actions, should not be given yet another chance to harm the victims in this case,’ he said.
He noted that the inventory order only covers Madoff’s Manhattan property and not homes in Montauk, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida, that are worth a total of more than US$12 million as well as a property in France.
‘The best way to prevent the defendant from transferring valuable assets to third parties and to severely impede his ability to do so with respect to his other properties is to detain him,’ Litt said. ‘There are no conditions short of detention that will adequately assure the safety of the community.’
Litt also seemed to defend the fact that prosecutors did not press for stringent bail conditions when Madoff was first arrested in early December on a securities fraud charge.
Litt wrote that Madoff had confessed, had indicated through his lawyer a willingness to assist the government in doing whatever possible to make victims whole and had appeared to have strong ties to the community. Prosecutors agreed that Madoff could leave court that day merely on the signatures of him and his wife on his $10 million bond.
Litt noted that within days the government twice moved to tighten bail conditions.-Nampa-AP