Madoff Arrives at Courthouse; Will He Go Home After Guilty Plea?

Bernard Madoff has arrived at a New York courthouse where he will plead guilty today in an alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

Angry investors, lawyers and dozens of photographers gathered early outside the courthouse, the Financial Times reports. Bloomberg and the Associated Press also chronicled Madoff’s arrival, nearly three hours before the 10 a.m. hearing.

Madoff's wife, Ruth, did not accompany him to the courthouse, according to the New York Daily News. A federal marshal tasked with controlling the crowd told the newspaper the atmosphere was like "Britney Spears and her circus act—that and a Tupperware party."

After Madoff pleads guilty to 11 federal criminal counts, he may have to trade his Manhattan penthouse for a jail cell.

After a guilty plea, the burden shifts, and it becomes more difficult to persuade a judge to keep a defendant free on bail until sentencing, the New York Times reports. The bail issue “is the biggest question mark hanging over the court hearing,” the newspaper says.

Former prosecutor Michael Shapiro doesn’t give Madoff a good chance of going home, according to the Times. “There is no reason I can think of why he should remain at liberty after he pleads guilty,” said Shapiro, whose law firm is representing some of Madoff’s clients. “With a lifetime in prison ahead, his risk of flight increases by a factor of infinity, in my view.”

There is also a second issue at today’s hearing—whether Judge Denny Chin will accept the plea, ABAJournal.com noted yesterday.

Updated at 9 a.m. to include New York Daily News coverage.