Madoff's Office Could Be Yours
Madoff won't appeal his jail time
By VICTORIA CAVALIERE
Updated 2:21 PM EST, Thu, Jul 9, 2009
A full floor in the midtown Manhattan high-rise known as the Lipstick Building where Bernard Madoff bilked thousand of investors out of billions of dollars has been emptied out and put up for lease.
Madoff's fishbowl corner office has been cleaned out, except for some cabinets and an old television.
The FBI are camped out on a second floor and plan to stay there through July.
On Thursday, the disgraced financier's lawyer said he had decided against appealing his 150-year sentence for a multi-billion dollar fraud that left charities bankrupt and thousands of people without their savings and retirement.
Madoff's lawyer, Ira Sorkin, declined to say why the decision was made.
Madoff was sentenced last week to the maximum term of 150 years in jail.
The 71-year-old Madoff and his lawyer argued for a 12-year sentence, and Madoff even faced his victims and apologized before the sentencing.
His victims described to the court their lives of suffering in the wake of the scam: endless anxiety, food stamps, working multiple jobs, dreams and security shattered.
Charities, businesses, families and celebrities have all be wiped out by the massive ponzi scheme.
"Commit Madoff to prison for the rest of his life," victim Burt Ross told the court. "May Satan grow a fourth mouth where Madoff can spend the rest of eternity."
Madoff told the court that "I cannot offer an excuse for my behavior."
"How do you excuse deceiving investors ... and 200 employees? How do you excuse lying to my sons and two brothers? How do you excuse lying to a wife who stood by you for 50 years and still stands by me? There is no excuse for that."
Last week, a judge issued a preliminary $171 billion forfeiture order stripping Madoff of all his personal property, including real estate, investments and $80 million in assets his wife Ruth had claimed were hers. The order left her with $2.5 million. Her apartment in Manhattan was seized a short time later.
Six months after his arrest, prosecutors still don't know exactly how much money he took or what victims might hope to eventually recover.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC New York
First Published: Jul 9, 2009 12:52 PM EST
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