New York (AP) - U.S. District Judge Denny Chin says the Federal Probation Department recommends that Bernard Madoff get 50 years in prison for a multibillion-dollar fraud scheme.

Madoff's lawyer has asked a judge to give his 71-year-old client 12 years behind bars. Prosecutors planned to seek a 150-year prison term Monday.

The former NASDAQ chairman was arrested late last year after confessing to his sons that his secretive investment advisory business was a ``big lie.''

He pleaded guilty to securities fraud and other charges in March and has been jailed ever since.
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