Madoff Sentencing Today: UPDATE: 150 Years

Bernie Madoff is going to prison. The only question is for how long. His attorney has claimed he should get no more than 12 years. Prosecutors and his victims want their pound of flesh and want 150 years.

Some victims were expected to call for harsh punishment at the disgraced financier's sentencing today in federal court in Manhattan. Ten have told U.S. District Judge Denny Chin they wish to speak out in court.

Madoff also "will speak to the shame he has felt and to the pain he has caused," his attorney, Ira Sorkin, said in court papers.

"We seek neither mercy nor sympathy," Sorkin wrote. But the lawyer urged Chin to "set aside the emotion and hysteria attendant to this case" as he determines the sentence.

There was no shortage of emotion in recent e-mails and letters to the judge by victims.

Carla and Stanley Hirschhorn wrote that they lost their life savings -- "a living nightmare that we can't wake up from."

Miriam Siegman expressed outrage "at the spectacle of a man playing with his victims -- thousands of them -- who he knew were facing a kind of death, playing with them as a cat would with a mouse."

Prosecutors argued in court papers Friday that federal sentencing guidelines allow the 150-year sentence. Any lesser term, they said, should at least be the equivalent of a life sentence.

Last week, Madoff saw a judge strip him and his family of billions of dollars in assets and require the sale of real estate holdings, including their Manhattan home, Palm Beach mansion, and all other properties.

UPDATE:
Madoff got the maximum sentence asked for and allowed under the Sentencing Guidelines. He got 150 years.

Applause broke out in the crowded Manhattan courtroom after U.S. District Judge Denny Chin issued the maximum sentence to the 71-year-old defendant, who said he sought no forgiveness and knew he must live "with this pain, this torment, for the rest of my life."

Chin rejected a request by Madoff's lawyer for leniency and said he disagreed that victims of the fraud were seeking mob vengeance.

"Here the message must be sent that Mr. Madoff's crimes were extraordinarily evil and that this kind of manipulation of the system is not just a bloodless crime that takes place on paper, but one instead that takes a staggering toll," Chin said.

The judge said the estimate that Madoff has cost his victims more than $13 billion was conservative because it did not include money from feeder funds.

UPDATE:
Via Rowdy Yates, the video: