Peter Madoff, Bernie Madoff’s brother, pleads guilty to conspiracy charges

GlobalPost

Peter Madoff, the brother of convicted Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, pleaded guilty Friday to charges he doctored documents that helped conceal the fraud that robbed thousands of their savings.

Peter Madoff, 66, entered the plea as part of a deal expected to result in a 10-year prison term. He was taken into custody at his lawyer's midtown Manhattan office earlier on Friday, The Associated Press reported.

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Madoff was the former chief compliance officer at the private investment branch of Bernie Madoff's business, Reuters reported.

He also agreed to forfeit $143 billion, including all of his real and personal property, as part of the plea deal with prosecutors.

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"Peter Madoff played an essential enabling role in the largest investment fraud in US history. He made a pretence of compliance; he was really about complicity," FBI Assistant Director Janice Fedarcyk told BBC News in a statement.

His older brother is serving a 150-year jail sentence after being convicted in 2009 of running the Ponzi scheme since the early 1990s, defrauding thousands out of roughly $20 billion, according to BBC News.

Recently, former Texas tycoon R. Allen Stanford was sentenced to 110 years for a $7 billion Ponzi scheme.

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