Judge asked to imprison Madoff for life

By Grant McCool

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Swindler Bernard Madoff should spend the rest of his life in prison, U.S. prosecutors argued on Friday, citing the "unique scope and duration" of his crimes as the leader of Wall Street's biggest fraud.

Madoff will be sentenced on Monday after pleading guilty in March to 11 criminal charges including securities fraud, money laundering and perjury in an investment scheme involving tens of billions of dollars.

"Madoff's crimes were of extraordinary dimensions," the prosecutors' memorandum to a Manhattan federal court judge said. "For example, the fraud loss known to date, which is greater than $13 billion (7.8 billion pounds), is more than 32 times the baseline level that would carry a sentence of life under the U.S. sentencing guidelines."

It said about $170 billion flowed into the principal account used by Madoff in his decades-long scheme. It said he bilked thousands of people and caused economic hardship to individuals, charities and for-profit institutions.

"A reasonable sentence in this case would be the guidelines sentence of 150 years, or alternatively, a term of years that both would assure that Madoff will remain in prison for life, and forcefully would promote general deterrence."

The uncovering of the scheme and Madoff's arrest in December led to calls for stricter oversight of firms.

Madoff's lawyer Ira Lee Sorkin declined to comment on the memorandum because he said he had not yet read it.

The government argued that the Madoff case bore no comparison to corporate frauds of recent years such as WorldCom Chief Executive Bernie Ebbers and Adelphia's John and Timothy Rigas. Ebbers is serving 25 years and the Rigases 12 years and 17 years, respectively.