NEW YORK — Bernard Madoff’s expected guilty plea leaves many of his ruined investors worried that the disgraced financier will take his secrets to prison with him.
On the eve of his federal court hearing, key questions remained unanswered: Who helped Madoff run one of the largest alleged investment scams in U.S. history? What happened to the money? Many of the people ruined by Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme took little comfort in his day of reckoning, even if it puts him in prison for life.
“A pound of flesh here is really not worth as much as a check,” said Burt Meerow, 70, who saw the proceeds of a lifetime of work vanish.
He is now selling his home in Park Ridge, N.J., to stay afloat.
Madoff is scheduled to enter his plea today in U.S. District Court in lower Manhattan.
His lawyer has indicated he will admit guilt on all 11 felony counts, which would lead to a sentence of about 150 years under federal guidelines. He would not be formally sentenced for several months.
Since almost the start of the case, the 70-year-old Madoff has been expected to plead guilty. And thousands of people who lost money with him have longed for the day he would be forced to leave his $7 million penthouse apartment, face his victims and be thrown in jail.
But the swiftness of his confession has been greeted with skepticism by his investors, many of whom still believe he has plenty to hide.
Matt Weinstein, a motivational speaker who, along with his wife, author Geneen Roth, lost the bulk of their savings, said he hoped any victims in attendance would press the judge to revoke Madoff’s bail immediately.
“That’s what really infuriates everyone,” Weinstein said. “We know people who have moved in with friends, who can’t afford their own homes.
“People can’t even afford rent anymore, and to see him in his penthouse. . . . He can’t go on in this palace of denial.”
