Disgraced financier Bernie Madoff has requested an early release from prison, citing that he suffers from terminal kidney failure and other health difficulties, and therefore only has 18 months to live.
Madoff, 81, asked U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin to free him after serving just 10 years of a 150-year sentence for running a Ponzi scheme worth almost $65 billion—the largest in history and one that inflicted heavy financial loss upon Jewish investors.
Madoff, who purposefully took advantage of his fellow Jews, pleaded guilty to 11 crimes in 2009 and is currently behind bars at a federal prison in Butner, N.C.
In a court filing on Wednesday, Madoff’s attorney, Brandon Sample, said his client has “chronic kidney failure that has progressed to end-stage renal disease.”
He is seeking an early release similar to Bernard Ebbers, who was convicted in 2005 of fraud and conspiracy as a result of WorldCom’s fall and served more than 13 years of a 25-year sentence. He died at the age of 78 on Feb. 2.
In his filing, Sample cited the case of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was found guilty in 2001 of 270 counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Lockerbie bombing in Scotland, where all 259 people on board Pan Am Flight 103 were killed in 1988. Megrahi was granted a passionate release from prison.
Last year, Madoff requested U.S. President Donald Trump to commute his sentence. The petition is pending, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.