Bernie Madoff Leaves Apartment, Headed To Bail Hearing (VIDEO)

NEW YORK — Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff (MAY'-dawf) is in federal court in Manhattan awaiting a bail hearing.

A hearing was scheduled Monday afternoon for the 70-year-old Madoff, who is accused of duping investors out of as much as $50 billion in a giant Ponzi scheme.

Madoff has been under house arrest in his Manhattan apartment under an earlier bail agreement. He also owns yachts and mansions in New York's Hamptons and Palm Beach, Fla.

The former Nasdaq stock market chairman was arrested Dec. 11 on securities fraud charges after the FBI said he confessed that his private investment business was a fraud.

Watch him leave his apartment for the first time in weeks (video courtesy Fox Business):

READ ABOUT THE BAIL HEARING, IN WHICH PROSECUTORS ARGUED THAT MADOFF IS A FLIGHT RISK, HERE

Comments

[wadda]

There are different laws for rich folk.

[Trittydi]

Egregious, rapacious GREED.

One of the seven deadly sins.
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[Trittydi]

I imagine by now the guy has hired himself an army of bodyguards. I think he'll need them.
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[SmolderingRuin]

He's a flight risk. Put the little bas tard back in jail.

[Robson]

Why is Madoff allowed to be free on bail? Why is he permitted to connive, collaborate, communicate and send his assets at will after ripping off clients for billions? Obviously this was a conspiracy of many, and by allowing him to remain free it subverts the ability of the government to control the information flow to his co-conspirators.

He should be monitored and caged in a controlled environment just as would any person who ripped off 7 Eleven for a measly cup of coffee.

Except that Madoff ripped off the equivalent of a country and its Army and those involved at some level were probably very powerful people who were able to prevent the SEC from ever investigating him..

[lechatnoir]

Quietly, the Madoff whopper is fading out from the spotlight. One can only wonder where are the 'missing' billions. Thanks to Is.raeli bank secrets, we can only speculate the kind of 'expenses' these 'evaporated, funds might be covering.

[Giada]

Fox News? I skipped the video. I'd prefer an in depth, honest story on Madoff.

[Trittydi]

Really - there's just no point. Vomit.
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[Shortyfuse]

The risk with letting him out is that he will put all his money in his family members names and then commit suicide. How convenient, no eye opening trial.

[bulfinch]

He is a flight risk and his wife is too. They need to be watched so they can't get to their numbered accounts.Restitution needs to be made.

[truthforme]

The REAL story will be when (actually IF) he is thrown in jail.

[nomoreofthesame]

Why is he not in jail? Too many connections to the system?

[WorkingClass]

Bernie knows too much about the dirt bag aristocracy that rules (and robs) this country. I doubt he will ever have to defend himself in open court.

[Trittydi]

In an alley someday, maybe. If his luck runs out.
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[deadelephant2]

Fox! That was breathtaking! How did you ever get such a scoop! I think I actually felt the world just shudder in place for a moment with that "breaking news"!

I wonder if when these poor dopes who work on Fox get home at night, they just collapse into their Lazy Boy's, utterly underwhelmed with their important work...?

[hollace]

Did madoff investors really lose as much as they say?

It is hard to feel sorry for them...people are losing their houses their jobs and all their HARD EARNED money was given away to these crooks.

[afgail]

It is hard to believe that with the map to the Madoff Ponzi scheme handed to the SEC years ago that he went unscathed. It could only have happen with a person or persons high up quashing a real investigation and covering for Madoff. There is culpability in the SEC. The congress needs to find the stonewaller in SEC enforcement.

[rockyersocksoff]

Flight risk?

I'd venture the bigger risk is this tool catching a little Jack Ruby action.

[Trittydi]

Agreed. Karma with a capital "K".
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