Judge sends Madoff to jail till sentencing

NEW YORK, March 12 (UPI) -- Disgraced Wall Street trader Bernard Madoff was ordered to prison Thursday after pleading guilty to 11 charges stemming from a decades-long Ponzi scheme.

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin revoked the $10 million bail arrangement for Madoff, ordering him to be sent immediately to prison, where he will stay until he is sentenced June 16, CNN said, adding that victims in the courtroom erupted into applause.

"I always knew this day would come," Madoff said during the hearing, CNN reported.

Madoff, accused of running a con that cost investors as much as $50 billion, agreed in February not to contest Securities and Exchange Commission charges filed against him.

Madoff said he was "ashamed for these criminal acts" and admitted he never invested the money, but "deposited it into a Chase Manhattan Bank," CNN said.

Flanked by his attorneys as he entered the federal courthouse in Manhattan, Madoff strode by news photographers and videographers as they snapped photos and rolled film.

Madoff said he thought his swindle "would end quickly" instead of lasting 20 years and wiping out funds of thousands of investors, including families, charities and pension funds, as well as hedge funds and partnerships.

Charges against him include securities fraud, money laundering and perjury. Besides financial penalties, Madoff could be sentenced to 150 years in prison.

If Madoff is sentenced to the maximum prison term, "I hope he lives a very long life," one scheme victim told CNN.