Bernard Madoff will stay in jail, perhaps forever

Bernard Madoff, inmate number 61727-054, won't be getting out of jail - perhaps forever - after an appeals court refused Friday to reinstate the Wall Street scammer's $10-million bail.

In a four-page decision, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a ruling by a lower-court judge who revoked Madoff's bail March 12, the day he admitted running a Ponzi scheme that may have lost investors as much as $65 billion.

Ruling in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Judge Denny Chin had found that because of Madoff's age - he is 70 - the fact that he was convicted and had large financial resources increased the possibility that he was a flight risk, despite round-the-clock security at his luxurious Manhattan apartment, where he had been living under house arrest.

The appeals court judges backed Chin's ruling by saying he was permitted to consider the incentive of Madoff to flee when he denied bail. Madoff, the appellate panel said, didn't prove by "clear and convincing evidence" that he wasn't a flight risk.

In addition, the appeals court said there was "substantial evidence" that Madoff could pose a danger to the financial health of the community, even though Chin didn't address that point.

"We are disappointed and respectfully disagree with the decision," defense attorney Ira Sorkin said Friday.

Madoff, who faces up to 150 years in prison when he is sentenced June 16, will remain at the Manhattan federal Metropolitan Correctional Center until then. As a new inmate, Madoff is being held in solitary confinement.