Madoff Sent to Federal Prison in North Carolina

Bernard Madoff arrived at a North Carolina federal prison Tuesday to start serving his 150-year prison term for running a massive Ponzi scheme that victimized investors around the world, prison officials said, The USA Today reports.

Photo: Madoff Sent to Federal Prison in North Carolina

Madoff Sent to Federal Prison in North Carolina

The agency yesterday transferred Madoff, 71, from a high- security lockup in Manhattan, where he’s been since his March 12 guilty plea, to the federal penitentiary in Atlanta. Madoff left that facility this morning and arrived at Butner shortly after 11:15 a.m., bureau spokesman Greg Norton said.

Madoff will be assigned today to one of five housing units, where he will live in “dormitory style housing,” Norton said. If healthy enough, he’ll be given a job. Norton declined to say whether Madoff may eventually be transferred to another prison. “This is where he’s been designated to be,” Norton said, Bloomberg reports.

Among Madoff's victims were Hollywood and international celebrities, several of the world's best-known banks and Jewish charities, some of which were forced to close after the scheme unraveled.

ABC also reported on Monday that Madoff's sentence had already been reduced by 20 years, citing federal prison records that listed the release date as November 12, 2139, AFP reports.