Bernie Madoff is Off to Federal Prison

Jailed conman Bernard Madoff is "in transit" to the prison where he will serve his 150-year sentence, a Bureau of Prisons spokesman said.

Published on July 14, 2009

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons is transferring Madoff from a high-security lockup in lower Manhattan, where he's been since his March 12 guilty plea, to a prison that hasn't yet been publicly identified, agency spokesman Bill Gau said in an interview. He will serve his sentence in Butner, North Carolina, CNBC reported, citing an unidentified source.

“He’s in transit now,” said Gau, a spokesman at the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, New York. He declined to say where Madoff was being taken.

At his June 29 sentencing, Madoff asked to be sent to Otisville, a medium-security prison with an adjacent camp about 70 miles northwest of Manhattan.

Madoff, 71, was sentenced June 29 for masterminding the largest U.S. Ponzi scheme ever. Prosecutors said the money manager told clients they had as much as $65 billion invested with him. The government has so far documented losses of about $13 billion. Madoff is not appealing his 150-year sentence.

Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 counts and got the maximum sentence on each. He received 20 years for two counts of international money laundering, as well as for single counts of securities fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, and making a false statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Money Laundering, Perjury

He got 10 years for one count of money laundering and five years for perjury, investment-adviser fraud, making a false statement, and theft from an employee benefit plan. Madoff must serve the sentences consecutively.

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin, who sentenced Madoff, requested that he serve his prison term in the northeast U.S.

Another prison agency spokeswoman, Linda Thomas, said in an interview that Madoff remains “under the jurisdiction” of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, where he’s been housed since March 12.

The Butner Federal Correctional Complex is northeast of Durham, North Carolina, and houses 4,874 inmates, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons Web site.

Adelphia Communications Corp. founder John Rigas and his son Timothy are serving their sentences in Butner’s low-security prison. In 2004, they were found guilty of leading one of the largest U.S. corporate frauds. Adelphia was once the fifth- largest U.S. cable-television company.