NEW YORK — Peter Moskowitz's retirement was marred forever when he lost his life savings to Bernard L. Madoff -- and he doesn't want the disgraced financier's golden years to be any better.
Moskowitz and other victims of Madoff's monumental Ponzi scheme will be watching closely as Madoff is sentenced today for masterminding a scheme that swindled billions of dollars from investors over two decades.
Madoff's lawyer, Ira Sorkin, has asked U.S. District Judge Denny Chin to sentence his client to as little as 12 years in prison, which Sorkin said could allow the 71-year-old to spend the latter stages of his life as a free man.
That infuriates victims who view Madoff's crime as reprehensible and the man himself as unrepentant.
"He stole my life savings," said Moskowitz, a 61-year-old retired dentist from Corona. "I don't think he should be asking for sympathy."
Legal experts doubt Chin will go along with Madoff's request.
Although he technically faces as many as 150 years in prison, many experts predict Madoff will get 20 to 25 years -- in effect a life sentence -- and perhaps much more.
But some defense experts say a life sentence isn't a certainty despite the magnitude of the crime.
Bernard J. Ebbers, the former chief executive of WorldCom Inc. who was convicted in 2005 of orchestrating an $11-billion accounting fraud, is serving 25 years in prison. Madoff could theoretically get a lighter sentence, some experts say, because, among other things, he saved the government the time and expense of a trial by pleading guilty.
"This isn't a guy who murdered people, who raped people or who sexually abused children," said Steven D. Feldman, an attorney at law firm Herrick, Feinstein in New York. "This is a guy who stole money, and it's terrible. But when you climb down through the hysteria, we don't generally give life sentences to people who steal a lot of money."
A big factor working against him is that the trustee trying to recover assets to repay victims says Madoff hasn't provided "meaningful cooperation."
Madoff pleaded guilty in March to 11 securities-related fraud counts that prosecutors say caused at least $13 billion in investor losses uncovered so far.
Until his arrest in December, Madoff told investors their assets were worth almost $65 billion, but much of that was bogus profit.
In papers filed late Friday, prosecutors argued for the full 150-year term or at least a lifetime sentence.
