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US District Judge Denny Chin handed down the maximum jail term of 150 years today (29 June), despite Madoff's lawyer having asked for a sentence of 12 years.

Handing down the sentence, Judge Chin said: "Mr Madoff’s crimes were extraordinarily evil. I do not get the sense that Mr Madoff has done all he could or said all that he knows."

Meanwhile, Madoff told the court: "I cannot offer you an excuse for my behaviour. As hard as I tried, the deeper I dug myself into a hole... I refused to accept that for once in my life I had failed."

In March, 71-year-old Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 charges, including securities fraud and money laundering.

Madoff's $65bn (£38bn) scheme came to light as a result of the recession, which caused investors to try to withdraw money from his fund only to find that it did not exist.

He was arrested in December, while a full list of those 'customers' hit by the scheme was published in February.

Running to 162 pages, the document named more than 13,000 investors, including a number of Hollywood stars and influential figures on both sides of the Atlantic, such as Lady Victoria de Rothschild and Hollywood actor John Malkovich.

The trustee winding down the Madoff firm has so far collected $1.2bn to return to investors.