Click to play videoWashington: Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 criminal charges that allege he swindled investors out of billions of dollars on Thursday in the US.
His admission could land him behind bars for up to 150 years but that's no reprieve for those who said they trusted Madoff with their money.
“What does that mean for all of us and what is the government going to do for us?” asked a worried Madoff investor Debrah Schwartz.
While another investor Bennett Goldworth said, “I don't have next month's rent. I don't know where I am going to work. I don't have anything. And there are many victims who are older than I am who can't start over again, who can't work and they have nothing.”
The charges against Madoff include money laundering, perjury and fraud. However, he is keeping tightlipped about who might have helped him in his alleged schemes.
There is no plea deal with prosecutors, no agreement to cooperate with authorities, which now leaves investigators to continue to pursue the money trail.
“This is the only way he could try, and I don't know if he will succeed but he could try to limit the damage and put it all on himself,” senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said.
The 70-year-old New Yorker was arrested back in December but has remained out on a $10-million bail, under house arrest in his Upper East Side penthouse.
Madoff's formal sentencing will take place in the next few months and that is when his alleged victims will once again be able to testify to ask for pay back.
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