Madoff’s lawyer asks for 12-year sentence

A lawyer for New York investor Bernard Madoff has requested a sentence of 12 years, for 11 fraud-related counts that lost investors an estimated $65 billion.

To date, 1,341 Madoff victims have been discovered with a collective loss of $13 billion, CNN reported Tuesday.

Madoff, who pleaded guilty in March, is currently 71 years old and has a life expectancy of 13 years, wrote attorney Ira Sorkin in a letter requesting federal Judge Denny Chin consider a 12-year term.

The letter refers to Madoff’s turning himself in to authorities and his non-violent nature.”

We seek neither mercy nor sympathy, Sorkin wrote, acknowledging terrible losses have been suffered as a result of Mr. Madoff’s conduct.

The judge has other letters to consider.

For what Mr. Madoff has done to us and to thousands of others like us, he deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison, just as we will spend the rest of our lives in financial ruin, a letter from Leonard Forrest of Port St. Lucie, Fla., said.

Madoff’s sentencing is scheduled for June 29. At that appearance, Madoff will speak to the shame he has felt and to the pain he has caused, Sorkin’s letter said.