NEW YORK – Prosecutors filed court papers Friday indicating Bernard Madoff may be ready to plead guilty to charges arising from one of the biggest financial frauds in history.
Madoff, 70, is scheduled for court twice next week, including a Tuesday appearance to waive any potential conflicts of interest involving his lawyer, and a Thursday morning arraignment. A defendant must enter a plea — guilty or not guilty — at an arraignment.
The U.S. attorney's office suggested Friday in a brief court filing that the money manager is ready to waive an indictment and one of Madoff's lawyers said he had already done so. A waiver of indictment is a necessary procedural step before a defendant enters a guilty plea.
Prosecutors have a deadline of next Friday to bring an indictment against Madoff under the speedy-trials law.
Madoff has been confined to his Manhattan penthouse since his arrest in early December after authorities said he told his family that he had engaged in a $50 billion fraud. Authorities have since said money lost by investors might be less than $17 billion and the higher amount may represent false profits.
Madoff has never contested the allegations and recently surrendered millions of dollars in major assets, actions that typically precede plea deals.
Investigators have spent the last three months trying to untangle Madoff's complicated financial operation while attempting to return what is left of his assets to investors who lost billions. Madoff's cooperation could be key to explaining the mysteries and intricacies of his business, and also explain if others were involved in the fraud.
Daniel J. Horwitz, a Madoff defense lawyer, would only say "we've waived the right to indictment and the case will proceed by information."
Typically, a defendant is brought before a judge, waives indictment and enters a guilty plea the same day to a charging document known as an "information." It resembles an indictment but is brought by prosecutors rather than a grand jury.
Prosecutor's spokeswoman Rebekah Carmichael declined to comment.
Matthew Fishbein, a former chief of the criminal division in the federal prosecutor's office in Manhattan who is now in private practice, said a waiver of indictment is often followed quickly by a guilty plea but it does not have to be imminent.
"This seems to be a more complicated information and more back and forth going on. It may simply be that this basically buys them some time," he said.
Madoff already has surrendered rights to his business and any of the assets held by the business. A trustee overseeing his assets said he has identified nearly $1 billion in assets that are available to reimburse investors who have lost money.
Shortly after his arrest, Madoff offered to relinquish many of his and his wife's assets, including properties in Palm Beach, Fla., and Antibes, France, as well as his boats and cars, according to a Jan. 13 court filing signed by Horwitz and fellow defense attorney Ira Sorkin.
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Topic: Prosecutors indicate Madoff plea may be in works (Read 527 times)