A US judge has ordered that disgraced Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff be jailed immediately after pleading guilty to a massive financial fraud.
Judge Denny Chin said Madoff should be jailed pending sentencing on June 16 on 11 charges of fraud, theft and money laundering. Madoff was led out of court in handcuffs.
Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 charges of running one of the largest financial frauds in history, embezzling billions of dollars from scores of clients.
Madoff had earlier arrived at the courthouse to be met by a horde of reporters and television cameras as he stepped out of a silver sports utility vehicle in a grey suit, appearing calm.
Pleading guilty to all 11 counts of fraud means Madoff, 70, may now face a prison term of up to 150 years, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors have said they are also seeking to recover the $177 billion that Madoff is alleged to have received from clients over two decades, some of which he then paid out to other clients to create the illusion of high investment returns.
Until today, Madoff had been on bail and living in his luxury New York apartment.
Madoff was charged with running a giant pyramid scheme that used new investors' capital to pay profits to existing clients. But while he is said to have enriched himself and those close to him, Madoff was at the same time using those stolen funds to pay steady returns to clients for many years.
When clients demanded their capital back, Madoff always obliged - at least until redemption requests accelerated last year during the Wall Street meltdown and the scheme collapsed.
No-one else has been charged, though prosecutors say the case remains open. Legal experts say the probe might turn to others, including Madoff's brother Peter, and his sons Mark and Andrew, all of whom worked closely with the disgraced investment manager.
