Bernard Madoff's lawyers appeared in court today to ask that the confessed Ponzi schemer be returned to his $7 million penthouse to await June sentencing on fraud charges. Federal prosecutors must now file a response and await an appeals court ruling, meaning the 70-year-old felon will spend at least the weekend in jail, the New York Daily News reports.
Ira Sorkin was expected to argue that Madoff deserves the same accommodations made for Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling of Enron before they were sentenced, but the fact that the trial judge didn't even ask prosecutors for a recommendation before revoking bail doesn't bode well. Inmate No. 61727-054 spent last night at the Manhattan Correctional Center, likely in an 8-by-7½-foot cell, the Post adds. (More Bernard Madoff stories.)