NEW YORK - Financier Bernard Madoff will not be ordered to pay restitution at his sentencing next week, a judge said Wednesday, citing the complexity of the multibillion-dollar fraud.
U.S. District Judge Denny Chin said in an order that the sentencing will proceed as scheduled on Monday.
But he granted a request by prosecutors to delay for three months deciding whether to order restitution or to order victim compensation through forfeiture laws and related regulations.
"I find that the number of victims, the difficulties posed by the lack of proper record-keeping, and the scope, complexity and duration of the fraud make it impossible, at this stage, to determine whether restitution is practiceable," Chin wrote.
The restitution order is a routine part of sentencing proceedings in fraud cases, but the process of liquidating Madoff's assets and distributing proceeds to his investors is well under way since Madoff and his wife agreed to give up most of their assets shortly after his arrest.
In a separate order, Chin also ruled that clothing can be delivered to Madoff to be worn at his sentencing.
Madoff, 71, has been housed at the Metropolitan Correctional Center next to the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan since he pleaded guilty on March 12 to 11 charges including securities fraud and perjury.
He faces up to 150 years in prison after admitting that he ran a fraudulent investment service for decades, squandering billions of dollars for thousands of investors.
His lawyer has asked the judge to sentence him to a dozen years in prison, saying that Madoff has co-operated with investigators seeking to recover money for jilted investors. Federal sentencing guidelines call for a life sentence.
Madoff's giant Ponzi scheme was revealed in December after he confessed to his sons on Dec. 10. The next morning, FBI agents interviewed the one-time chairman of the Nasdaq and he admitted the fraud and said he expected to go to prison.
