Disgraced financier Bernie Madoff has requested U.S. President Donald Trump to commute his 150-year sentence for running a Ponzi scheme worth almost $65 billion—the largest in history and one that inflicted heavy financial losses upon Jewish investors.
The 81-year-old’s request was listed on the U.S. Department of Justice’s website, which shows that the status of the request is “pending.”
A commutation is a reduced sentence as opposed to a pardon.
Madoff, who purposefully took advantage of his fellow Jews, pleaded guilty to 11 crimes in 2009 and is currently behind bars at a federal prison in Butner, N.C.
In office, Trump has issued 10 pardons and four commutations, the first of the latter being of Sholom Rubashkin, who served more than eight years of a 27-year sentence for federal bank fraud.
In his 2009 book, Think Like a Champion, Trump rejected Madoff’s offer to invest jointly.
“I had enough going on in my own businesses that I didn’t need to be associated or involved with his,” wrote Trump, adding that “he is without a doubt a sleazebag and a scoundrel without par.”
“The Justice Department would not reveal when Bernie Madoff’s request for clemency was submitted. But the department noted that such an application takes between one and three months to appear on the clemency section of the website,” reported CNBC.
Whether or when Trump will consider the request is currently unknown.
