Is a Plea Deal for Disgraced Money Manager Madoff In the Works?

Bernard Madoff, the Wall Street investment advisor charged with orchestrating a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, may be close to striking a plea bargain with prosecutors.

Speculation about a deal ending the case against Madoff being near has intensified after federal prosecutors filed a document in court which typically is a precursor to the reaching of a plea bargain. Prosecutors have until March 13, 2009 to either indict Madoff on the charges or reach a deal ending the case.

Madoff, 70, once a highly respected Wall Street trader and investment manager, was arrested in December 2008 and charged with defrauding thousands of investors in a decades-long fraud. Prosecutors allege Madoff took billions of dollars in investor dollars, promising to purchase securities with the funds, but never did so.

He is accused of pocketing the money and paying early investors from money received from newer clients. He remains out of custody after posting $10 million bail and allowed to be on house arrest in his luxurious Manhattan penthouse apartment, which has angered many of his clients who lost their lives’ savings in his company.

Madoff reportedly confessed to carrying out the scam and is cooperating with prosecutors, further increasing the chances that a plea bargain, rather than a long and costly trial, may be in the works.

Madoff was among the first in a string of U.S. financial industry giants implicated in billion-dollar investment scams, cases which came to symbolize the dramatic fall of the United States economy into one of the worst financial recessions in a generation.

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