世界金融历史上最大的金融欺诈案主犯伯纳德•麦道夫29日被纽约南区联邦法院判处150年监禁，现年71岁的麦道夫将在监狱里度过他的余生。麦道夫诈骗案涉及金额超过600亿美元，为世界金融历史上最大的“庞氏骗局”。去年12月，麦道夫因涉嫌金融诈骗被逮捕。今年3月，麦道夫在纽约曼哈顿联邦地区法院出庭时接受了检方11项犯罪指控，他对所有犯罪指控供认不讳，其中包括证券欺诈、洗钱、伪证等。

Convicted fraudster Bernard Madoff will die behind bars after being sentenced to 150 years in jail for orchestrating the largest fraud America has ever seen.

Dressed in a dark suit, Madoff, who admitted in March to running a $65bn (£40bn) Ponzi scheme for the past three decades, will serve 150 years, Denny Chin, a US District Judge, told a packed courtroom in New York.

Judge Chin said that the 'symbolism' of the sentence is important. Madoff, who kept his eyes down during much of the testimony¹, told the court that "I don't ask for any forgiveness."

The 71-year-old former money manager, whose defense² lawyer last week pleaded for him to serve a total of 12 years, has come for many to symbolize³ the greed and excess of the financial boom.

Several of his victims got the chance to tell their stories in court. Dominic Ambrosino, a former prison officer, told the court that he and his wife Ronnie Sue had their "entire life savings⁴ wiped out". Madoff kept his eyes down as his victims spoke⁵.

A sizable proportion of his victims were middle-class public school teachers, farmers and mechanics. Many are now struggling to pay their bills.

Victims of the so-called Ponzi scheme stretched from celebrities⁶, including film director Steven Spielberg and actor Kevin Bacon, to a string of high-profile financial institutions such as Spain's Santander.

In total, about 1,341 account holders⁷ lost out in the classic “cash in, cash out” fraud, according to court papers. The scheme lured⁸ new investors⁹ with the promise of large returns, and used that cash to deliver the returns to earlier investors.

Named after Charles Ponzi - who ran such a fraud in America in the 1920s - the scheme eventually collapsed¹⁰ when the credit crisis prompted investors to withdraw their funds.

Today's sentencing is the latest chapter in the Madoff fraud that has unravelled¹¹ with lightning speed since December. He first confessed to his two sons, Mark and Andrew, that month before telling a FBI agent that there was no “innocent explanation”.

After three months under house arrest he pleaded guilty to 11 counts of fraud, mail and money laundering¹² in March, at which point Judge Chin revoked¹³ his bail¹⁴. Madoff has spent the past three months in a 7.5ft by 8ft cell in the high-security wing of Manhattan’s Metropolitan¹⁵ Correctional Centre.

Born to a Jewish family in New York on April 29, 1938, Madoff founded Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities with the 5,000 dollars he had saved at the age of 22, before branching into investment banking¹⁶ and a hedge fund business.