Did you know Madoff used to run the Nasdaq stock exchange? This ain't no good

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http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-madoff-plead13-2009mar13,0,768060.story

Madoff expected to plead guilty today

Disgraced financier faces 11 felony counts after investors bilked of billions.

By Walter Hamilton and Michael Muskal

5:00 AM PDT, March 12, 2009

Reporting from New York City and Los Angeles -- Bernard L. Madoff, whose charm and promises of steady riches propelled him through social circles that included Hollywood celebrities and Nobel Prize winners, was to head to court this morning, where he is expected to plead guilty to bilking his onetime friends out of tens of billions of dollars.

The former chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange, Madoff is expected to acknowledge 11 felony counts, including securities fraud, money laundering and perjury, that allege he cheated nearly 5,000 clients out of as much as $65 billion, according to federal prosecutors. There is no agreement on sentencing, but Madoff, 70, could spend the rest of his life in jail for running what officials have said may be the nation's biggest and most costly Ponzi scheme.