Top Highlights

• what Madoff had chosen: to plead guilty, and thus not to cooperate with the government’s investigation or to indict anyone else in his crime,
• He took full blame. He wasn’t going to cooperate with the prosecutors, wasn’t going to help them out and bargain for leniency or a lesser sentence. He wasn’t about to indict his family or anyone else for helping in this fraud—
• Madoff wanted everyone to believe that the crime was his and his alone—even though investigators suspected that his wife, his sons, his brother, and other relatives and top lieutenants helped carry it out.
• Madoff would not have to spell out any details of his crime, nor would he implicate anyone else.
• “Judge, I believe you have the opportunity today to find out where the money is and who else is involved in this crime,” Ambrosino said. “And if this plea is accepted without those two pieces of information, I object to it being taken.”