Appeals court rules Madoff can't leave jail

Bernard L. Madoff must remain in prison while he awaits sentencing for orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme in history, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in New York rejected Madoff's request to be released on bail until the June 16 sentencing. When Madoff pleaded guilty last week to 11 counts that included securities fraud and perjury, the federal judge ordered him to jail immediately, saying he was a risk to flee because of his age and wealth.

Madoff, 70, is being held in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan.

"The court did not err in inferring an incentive to flee," the three-judge panel said in yesterday's decision. "The district court's finding that the defendant has the means - and therefore the ability - to flee was not clear error."

Madoff admitted he used money from new investors to pay off old ones and said the global fraud, estimated at $65 billion, began in the early 1990s. He faces a prison sentence of up to 150 years.