Convicted ponzi swindler Bernard Madoff has left New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center and is taking up new digs at a federal prison in North Carolina, where he will begin a 150-year sentence that should guarantee that he dies behind bars.
Madoff had been held at the federal jail -- a temporary home to a range of felony suspects from John Gotti to terror detainee Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani -- since a judge revoked his $10 million bail on March 16.
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Prisoner Madoff will be held at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex, which is near the so-called Research Triangle of Durham, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill. Rumor had it that Madoff had hoped to be sent to Otisville prison in upstate New York.
Madoff, 71, was sentenced last month to 150 years in jail for carrying out a multi-billion dollar fraud that demolished the life savings and retirement accounts of thousands of people, wiped out charities, slashed the bottom line of domestic and foreign companies, and shook Americans' confidence in the oversight of the U.S. financial system.
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Last week, the disgraced financier's lawyer, Ira Sorkin, said he had decided against appealing his 150-year sentence. Sorkin declined to say why the decision was made.
Just a week before, Sorkin had argued for a 12-year sentence, saying his Madoff's expected life span was not that much longer.
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At his sentencing, Judge Danny Chin said "the message must be sent that Mr. Madoff's crimes were extraordinarily evil and that this kind of irresponsible manipulation of the system is not merely a bloodless financial crime that takes place just on paper, but it is instead ... one that takes a staggering human toll."
As investigators try to get to the bottom of the massive fraud --- estimated at around $65 billion -- a preliminary $171 billion forfeiture order stripped Madoff of all his personal property, including real estate, investments, and $80 million in assets his wife Ruth had claimed were hers. Ruth was also ejected from the Madoff's swanky Upper East Side penthouse.
Madoff pleaded guilty in March to securities fraud and other charges, saying he was “deeply sorry and ashamed.” He insisted that he acted alone, describing a separate wholesale stock-trading firm run by his sons and brother as honest and legitimate.