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(03/12/09 5:15pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>NEW YORK — Saying he was "deeply sorry and ashamed," Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty Thursday to pulling off perhaps the biggest swindle in Wall Street history and was immediately led off to jail in handcuffs after his seething victims applauded in the courtroom.U.S. District Judge Denny Chin denied bail for Madoff, 70, and ordered him to jail, noting that he had the means to flee and an incentive to do so because of his age.Madoff spoke softly but firmly to the judge as he pleaded guilty to 11 charges in his first public comments about his crimes since the scandal broke in early December."I am actually grateful for this opportunity to publicly comment about my crimes, for which I am deeply sorry and ashamed," he said."As the years went by, I realized my risk and this day would inevitably come. I cannot adequately express how sorry I am for my crimes."Prosecutors say the disgraced financier, who has spent three months under house arrest in his $7 million Manhattan penthouse, could face a maximum term of 150 years in prison at sentencing June 16.DeWitt Baker, an investor who says he lost more than a million dollars with Madoff, called it "fantastic" that Madoff's bail was revoked but brushed off the apology."I don't think he has a sincere bone in his body," said DeWitt, who noted that prison time would be too good for Madoff."I'd stone him to death," he said.Madoff did not look at any of the three investors who spoke at the hearing, even when one turned in his direction and tried to address him.The fraud, which prosecutors say may have totaled nearly $65 billion, turned a revered money man into an overnight global disgrace whose name became synonymous with the current economic meltdown.Madoff described his crimes after he entered a guilty plea to all 11 counts he was charged with, including fraud, perjury, theft from an employee benefit plan, and two counts of international money laundering.He told the judge that he believed the fraud would be short-term and that he could extricate himself. He implicated no one else in his court statement.The plea came three months after the FBI claimed Madoff admitted to his sons that his once-revered investment fund was all a big lie — a Ponzi scheme that was in the billions of dollars. Since his arrest in December, the scandal has turned the former Nasdaq chairman into a pariah who has worn a bulletproof vest to court.The scheme evaporated life fortunes, wiped out charities and apparently pushed at least two investors to commit suicide. Victims big and small were swindled by Madoff, from elderly Florida retirees to actors Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel.
(03/11/09 2:49pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>NEW YORK — Bernard Madoff could be facing his final hours of freedom after acknowledging that he will plead guilty to charges that he engineered one of the largest investment scams in U.S. history and was ready to face a prison sentence of up to 150 years.The revelation came Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where Madoff waited for more than three hours in a conference room to avoid a clash with angry investors before appearing in court for the first time in nearly two months for what was to be a routine hearing.An attorney for the 70-year-old former Nasdaq chairman told the judge Madoff intends to plead guilty this week to all 11 felony counts, including securities fraud and perjury.The judge will decide Thursday whether to accept the plea and, if so, whether Madoff should remain free pending sentencing in several months.Madoff, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, is accused of running a gigantic Ponzi scheme, defrauding billions of dollars from retirees, charities, school trusts and even Holocaust survivors.Madoff buttoned his jacket and straightened it as he rose from his seat to speak. Aside from occasionally speaking with his lawyers or writing on a sheet of paper in front of him, he looked forward.Asked by the judge if Madoff would plead guilty Thursday, his attorney Ira Sorkin said: "I think that's a fair expectation." U.S. District Judge Denny Chin asked Sorkin if Madoff would plead guilty to all 11 counts."Yes your honor," Sorkin answered.Madoff slumped back in his chair during the exchange.At least 25 Madoff investors have asked to speak Thursday under provisions allowing victims of crime to appear at a plea hearing.Chin said he would limit investors who want to speak to those who challenge whether the plea should be accepted or whether Madoff should be allowed to remain on bail."There is no plea bargain here. Those victims who objected to a plea bargain no longer have a reason to object," Chin said.Attorney Jerry Reisman, who represents more than a dozen Madoff investors, predicted the plea hearing would be "a zoo.""I will tell you my clients are outraged by his being able to escape with a guilty plea," he said.In court documents, prosecutors revealed some details of how the fraud was carried out since the 1980s, saying Madoff hired many people with little or no training or experience in the securities industry to serve as a "back office" for his investment advisory business.Madoff generated or had employees generate "tens of thousands of account statements and other documents through the U.S. Postal Service, operating a massive Ponzi scheme," prosecutors said.The money wasn't invested, but was used by Madoff, his business and others, prosecutors said.Authorities said he confessed to his family that he had carried out a $50 billion fraud. In court documents filed Tuesday, prosecutors raised the size of the fraud to $64.8 billion.Experts say the actual loss was more likely much less and that higher numbers reflect false profits he promised investors. So far, authorities have located about $1 billion for jilted investors.Prosecutors reserved the right to pursue more than $170 billion in criminal forfeiture, according to court documents. That represents the total amount of money that could be connected to the fraud, not the amount stolen or lost.In his own court filing Tuesday, Sorkin said the government's forfeiture demand of $177 billion was "grossly overstated — and misleading — even for a case of this magnitude.""The purpose of this letter is not to minimize Mr. Madoff's culpability. However, we wish to notify the court that the issues related to forfeiture, restitution and sentencing in this matter are highly complex and will require extensive time to resolve and warrant discovery to the defense," Sorkin wrote.Sorkin said Madoff had paid redemptions to investors, "a number likely in the billions."Madoff was charged with securities, investment adviser, mail and wire frauds along with money laundering, making false statements, perjury, making a false filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, theft from an Employee Benefit Plan and two counts of international money laundering.The charges "reflect an extraordinary array of crimes committed by Bernard Madoff for over 20 years," U.S. Attorney Lev L. Dassin said in a release. "While the alleged crimes are not novel, the size and scope of Mr. Madoff's fraud are unprecedented."In addition to prison time, he said Madoff faces mandatory restitution to victims, forfeiture of ill-gotten gains and criminal fines.He also noted that the government has not entered into any agreement with Madoff about his plea or sentencing and that the filing of the charges do not end the matter. "Our investigation is continuing," Dassin said.
(01/23/08 3:40am)
NEW YORK – Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday at a downtown Manhattan residence in a possible drug-related death, police said. He was 28.\nNYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Ledger had an appointment for a massage at the Manhattan apartment believed to be his home. The housekeeper who went to let Ledger know the masseuse was there found him dead at 3:26 p.m.\nThe Australian-born actor was an Oscar nominee for his role in “Brokeback Mountain” and has numerous other screen credits.\nHe will soon appear as “the Joker” in “The Dark Knight,” a new Batman movie.
(10/02/07 5:52pm)
NEW YORK – A jury decided Tuesday that New York Knicks coach Isiah Thomas sexually harassed a former top team executive, subjecting her to unwanted advances and a barrage of verbal insults, but also said he does not have to pay punitive damages.\nAfter an ugly, three-week trial, the verdict gives Thomas a partial victory in the $10 million lawsuit filed by Anucha Browne Sanders.\nThe jury did find that Madison Square Garden committed harassment against the woman, and decided that she is entitled to punitive damages from MSG.\n"I'm innocent, I'm very innocent, and I did not do the things she has accused me in this courtroom of doing," Thomas said. "I'm extremely disappointed that the jury did not see the facts in this case. I will appeal this, and I remain confident in the man that I am and what I stand for and the family that I have."\nMadison Square Garden also said it would appeal.\nU.S. District Judge Gerard E. Lynch called it an "eminently reasonable" verdict, and gave the jurors instructions on how to proceed. Before the jury resumed deliberations, attorneys from both sides appealed to the jurors.\nBrowne Sanders' lawyer, Anne Vladeck, urged the jury to affix damages that send a message "to avoid this happening to somebody else." She said the defendants had ruined her client's career, and she called Dolan a liar.\nThomas's lawyer, Ronald Green, told jurors they had already sent "a very clear, very strong and very forceful message.\n"Punishment for the sake of punishment is not what this is all about," he said.\nThe harassment verdict was widely expected after the jury sent a note to the judge Monday indicating that it believed Thomas and the other defendants, Madison Square Garden and MSG chairman James Dolan, sexually harassed Browne Sanders, a married mother of three.\nAfter the verdict, Browne Sanders hugged family members and friends gathered in the back of the courtroom. Thomas huddled with his lawyers, and was allowed to leave the Manhattan courthouse. Dozens of reporters and cameras gathered outside the courthouse to await his exit.\n"We believe that the jury's decision was incorrect," MSG said in a statement. "We look forward to presenting our arguments to an appeals court, and believe they will agree that no sexual harassment took place and MSG acted properly."\nNBA spokesman Tim Frank said the league's policies "do not encompass civil litigation."\nBrowne Sanders, fired from her $260,000 a year job in 2006, sued Thomas and Madison Square Garden. Her case presented the Garden as "Animal House" in sneakers, a place where nepotism, sexism, crude remarks and crass language were part of the culture.\nThe former Northwestern college basketball star characterized Thomas as a foul-mouthed lout who initially berated her as a "bitch" and a "ho" before his anger gave way to ardor, with Thomas making unwanted advances and encouraging her to visit him "off site."\nThomas, who was hired in December 2003, followed her to the stand and denied all her allegations. Attorneys for Thomas and the Garden also portrayed Browne Sanders as incompetent and unable to adapt once the former NBA star player arrived as the Knicks' president.\n"That's not about sexual harassment," MSG attorney Ronald Green said in his closing argument. "That's about team politics."\nThomas, who is married with two children, acknowledged trying to kiss Browne Sanders in December 2005, asking her "No love today?" when she recoiled. MSG president Steve Mills said he spoke with Thomas about the single incident, and the former point guard said it wouldn't happen again.\nIn her closing argument, Browne Sanders' attorney Anne Vladeck made note of Thomas' charismatic style and incandescent grin.\n"There is no question Mr. Thomas can be charming and flash an engaging smile," she told the jury. "That does not give him the right to treat Browne Sanders like she is his woman."\nThomas insisted he did not sexually harass Browne Sanders and had nothing to do with her firing.\n"I didn't do what she said I did. I am innocent," Thomas said in a statement. "I remain confident in the truth and am committed to appealing this decision and clearing my good name. During this period, I will focus on the basketball operations of the New York Knicks, and will have no further comment on this case."\nDolan, who testified before Thomas, said he dismissed the team's vice president for marketing and business operations after learning she was pressuring Garden subordinates to bolster her complaint.\nThe case, from its inception, proved a public relations disaster for the Knicks and the Garden, with intense coverage of the three-week trial focusing on its tawdriest aspects — star guard Stephon Marbury having sex with an intern outside a strip club, raunchy come-ons from a Marbury cousin to his Garden co-workers, Thomas' videotaped remarks about the racial dynamics of calling a woman "a bitch."\nThe trial did steer attention from the Knicks on-court woes as the team geared up for its second season with Thomas as coach. The Knicks finished 33-49 last year, and have yet to win a playoff game during the Thomas regime.\nThe Knicks opened training camp Tuesday in Charleston, S.C.\nMSG is owned by Cablevision Systems Corp., based in Bethpage, N.Y., and Dolan is Cablevision's CEO. Shares fell 35 cents, or 1 percent, to $34.71 in afternoon trading.
(04/26/05 4:34am)
NEW YORK -- An Afghan on the United States' list of most wanted drug kingpins, who allegedly forged a deal with the Taliban in exchange for protection, has been arrested, authorities said Monday.\nBashir Noorzai was in custody in New York and was awaiting arraignment later Monday on charges he tried to smuggle 500 kilograms of heroin with a value of more than $50 million into the United States, authorities said.\nAn indictment alleges Noorzai and "has a symbiotic relationship" with the Taliban, U.S. Attorney David Kelley said at a news conference.\nAuthorities said he was arrested while traveling to the United States, but declined to give details. Kelley also refused to comment on reports that the defendant has ties to the al-Qaida terrorist network.\n"It's not something that's part of the case," Kelley said.\nBetween 1990 and 2004, the defendant and his organization "provided demolitions, weapons and manpower to the Taliban," Kelley said. "In exchange, the Taliban allowed Noorzai's business to flourish."\nThe Taliban protected Noorzai's opium crops, its heroin laboratories in Afghanistan and Pakistan and its drug transportation routes out of the country, prosecutors said.\nIn 1997, Taliban authorities "seized a truckload of 'morphine base' that was owned by Noorzai," the indictment said. The drugs were quickly returned "with personal apologies from Mullah Mohammad Omar, the leader of the Taliban," the indictment added.\nLast year, the White House added Noorzai and nine other people and organizations to the list of most drug lords, bringing the number of those designated on the list to 48 since it was started in 2000. The White House gave Noorzai's name as Haji Bashir Noorzai.\nUnder the 1999 Drug Kingpin Act, drug traffickers and their related businesses identified on the list are denied access to the U.S. financial system and all trade and transactions involving U.S. companies and individuals.\nThe militant Taliban militia had ruled Afghanistan until it was toppled by the United States in late 2001. Taliban-led militants are still operating along Afghanistan's mountainous eastern border with Pakistan.
(11/20/02 3:45am)
NEW YORK -- The author of a book accusing firefighters of looting ground zero after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks defended his work Monday against mounting criticism by union officials. \nCritics of William Langewiesche's American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center have focused on a passage about the discovery of dozens of new jeans -- still tagged, folded and stacked -- inside the cab of a fire truck pulled from the rubble. \nAbout 150 demonstrators, including off-duty firefighters and widows of firefighters killed in the attack, gathered outside a museum where Langewiesche was holding a book-signing session Monday night. \nThe demonstrators -- some chanting "Liar! Liar!" -- distributed a letter from fire department Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta accusing the author of "tarnishing the memory of our city's heroes with foolish, absurd and unfounded accusations." \n"I have nothing against firefighters," William Langewiesche said. "I'm much in admiration of firefighters." \nThe uproar, Langewiesche added, comes as no surprise. \n"This is very, very emotional territory," he said. \nA longtime correspondent with The Atlantic Monthly, Langewiesche was granted full access to the cleanup site over several months. He described a war zone that brought out the best and the worst of those who labored to remove bodies and debris. \nOne office building near ground zero was "systematically rifled for valuables," Langewiesche wrote. "Whether by errant firemen, policemen or construction workers hardly mattered. All three groups were at various times implicated in a widespread pattern of looting that started even before the towers fell, and was to peak around Christmas with the brazen theft of office computers." \nWorking about 50 feet below street level last fall, construction workers found the fire truck filled with jeans, the book said. The workers began jeering firefighters at the scene after concluding that "while hundreds of doomed firefighters had climbed through the wounded buildings, this particular crew had engaged in something else entirely," it said. \nFire officials have theorized the merchandise was blown into the truck by the force of the towers' collapse. \nOne of the demonstrators, Chief Joseph Nardone, said that the book's account was full of inaccuracies. \nHe conceded jeans were found scattered near the truck but said they were from a different store and said the crew from that truck, who died on Sept. 11, "were out to do one thing --save people"
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
NEW YORK -- Some of the Middle Eastern men jailed in the terror investigation are complaining that they have been held in solitary confinement, stripped, blindfolded, roughed up and deprived of sleep. \n"I was treated worse than an animal," Yazeed Al-Salmi, a former housemate of one of the hijackers, said after he was released this month from the Metropolitan Correctional Center. Al-Salmi, a Saudi living in California, said he and others were stripped and videotaped. \nFederal authorities have denied any pattern of abuse against the more than 1,000 people being held. \nLike Al-Salmi, the men are being held, sometimes in solitary, on material-witness warrants, immigration violations or other charges while authorities determine whether they have links to terrorism or any information that can advance the investigation. \nThe government has said the roundup is necessary to prevent further attacks and gather vital security information. Most of those detained, the government has said, are not considered terrorists. \nIf any do have terrorist ties, though, they may be under orders to manipulate the U.S. judicial system. A manual circulated among members of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization offers this instruction: Once in custody, a person should complain loudly and repeatedly that he is being abused. \nAs many as 100 people are being held in federal lockups in New York City as part of the investigation. \nBureau of Prisons spokeswoman Linda Smith said the accusations against guards in New York are unsubstantiated. \nThe guards have been "hand-picked for their professional maturity," Smith said. The jails give Muslim prisoners access to lawyers, prayer rugs, copies of the Quran and meals that follow Islamic dietary laws, she added. \n The American Civil Liberties Union has demanded the Justice Department reveal more about who the prisoners are and why they are being held. \n The information should be released "to assure the American public that the government's investigation is both thorough and fair," ACLU official Anthony Romero wrote in a recent letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft. \nSeveral immigrant groups, along with the Association of Pakistani Physicians in North America and the Center for Constitutional Rights, called on the government to provide more information about the detainees and greater assurances of safe treatment. \nThe identities of many of those detained are not being released by the government. The only glimpse of life behind bars has come from a few prisoners who have either been released or made appearances in open court. \nOsama Awadallah, a Jordanian college student from San Diego, was held as a material witness for a month before he was charged Oct. 19 with lying to a grand jury about whether he knew one of the hijackers. Guards at the federal lockup in Manhattan have kept him from sleeping and "roughed him up," said his attorney, Jesse Berman.