Bernie Madoff Asks Trump To Commute His 150-Year Sentence
Image by Getty Images
(JTA) — Bernie Madoff has asked President Trump to commute his sentence.
Madoff, 81, filled a request with the Justice Department between one and three months ago, The Hill reported.
The Justice Department’s website lists the request as “pending,” and says it is updated to July 1. The request is for clemency, not a pardon.
Madoff is serving a 150-year sentence in federal prison in Butner, North Carolina for his $19 billion Ponzi scheme, which began in the early 1970s and lasted until his arrest in 2008. He pleaded guilty to 11 felony charges related to money laundering, perjury, and falsifying financial documents.
The uncovering of the Ponzi scheme revealed the tens of billions of dollars in fake profit that victims believed they had earned through Madoff. Many prominent Jewish nonprofits also suffered big losses, with Yeshiva University taking a $140 million hit, Hadassah $90 million and Elie Wiesel’s foundation losing $15 million.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
