Madoff ‘Trying to Cut a Deal’

Prosecutors acknowledged in a court order released Monday that the lawyer for accused financier Bernard Madoff is in talks about “a possible disposition of this case.”

Madoff’s lawyer, Ira Lee Sorkin, didn’t comment about the order delaying a hearing in the case that had been scheduled for Monday, the New York Times reports. But other lawyers said Sorkin is evidently talking about a plea.

“He’s trying to cut a deal,” explained white-collar criminal defense lawyer Marvin Pickholz in an interview with the New York Times.

But the New York Times Dealbook blog says that in the past Sorkin has waffled on the issue of whether Madoff is cooperating with authorities. The blog says Sorkin appears to be buying time for his client and suggests that it could be a year before Madoff ends up in jail.

On Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis refused to revoke bail for Madoff, despite prosecutors’ claim that he tried to violate conditions of his $10 million bond by sending expensive jewelry to family members. Ellis said the government did not prove that Madoff is a flight risk, the New York Law Journal reports in a story that details his decision. Former federal prosecutor Daniel Margolis, a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, agreed.

“The guy is on electronic monitoring, he has a guard watching him every day, and the press is watching his every move," Margolis told Reuters. “So fleeing the country under these conditions would require an escape plan of cinematic proportions."

But columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin argued on the New York Times Dealbook blog that “someone without Mr. Madoff’s bank account surely would be locked up by now.” He points out that Madoff’s wife is helping pay for some of the conditions of his bail, including private guards to monitor him and a security firm to inventory and watch his valuables.

“Welcome to the two-tiered system of justice: one for the superrich, the other for the rest of us,” Sorkin writes.

Prosecutors said they would appeal the ruling, according to the Times and Reuters.