Madoff Pleads Guilty

Burn, Baby, Burn..

One of Wall Street's biggest swindles ends in guilty plea on 11 charges - stole billions from investment clients in Ponzi scheme.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Bernard Madoff, who stole billions from investment clients, pleaded guilty on Thursday to all 11 criminal counts in one of Wall Street's biggest swindles ever.

Madoff stole from more than 4,000 victims through his investment firm, the government says. The 70-year-old defendant could face a maximum 150-year sentence.

Madoff probably won't be sentenced for at least 90 days.

In Thursday's court proceeding, Madoff was expected to face many of his alleged victims -- 50 courtroom seats have been reserved for them. Some of the investors entrusted all their savings to his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC.

Madoff is accused of creating a scheme in which new investments were used to fund payoffs to earlier investors, to falsely create the appearance of legitimate returns. But investigators say that Madoff didn't invest any of his clients' funds into securities for at least 13 years.

So far, Madoff has successfully avoided detention since his December arrest, posting $10 million bail and cloistering himself with his wife in their $7 million Manhattan apartment. The judge presiding over his case is likely to make a fresh decision Thursday whether to order him jailed following a guilty plea.

He was able to remain in his residence, despite accusations from federal prosecutors that he tried to hide his assets from seizure by mailing diamond-studded jewelry to relatives. Only a fraction of the missing money has been recovered.