MADOFF-UPDAT1

Bernard Madoff’s lawyer has told a judge scheduled to sentence the disgraced financier next week that 12 years in prison would be sufficient punishment for the man who swindled tens of billions of investors’ dollars in one of history’s biggest frauds.

But a Colorado woman who says her family was ruined financially by Madoff’s thievery said that sentence might work only “if he was hung by his toes” the whole time.

Madoff, 71, faces up to 150 years in prison after pleading guilty March 12 to 11 felony counts, including securities fraud and perjury. He admitted operating a massive Ponzi scheme for decades. Federal sentencing guidelines call for him to receive a life sentence.

Madoff attorney Ira Sorkin said in court papers hat his client “will speak to the shame he has felt and to the pain he has caused” when U.S. District Judge Denny Chin sentences him Monday.

“We seek neither mercy nor sympathy,” Sorkin wrote. But he urged Chin to “set aside the emotion and hysteria attendant to this case” as he determines the sentence.