A US federal judge sentenced Bernard L Madoff to 150 years in prison on Monday for operating a huge Ponzi scheme that devastated thousands of people.

In pronouncing the sentence — the maximum he could have handed down — Judge Denny Chin turned aside Madoff’s own assertions of remorse and rejected the suggestion from Madoff’s lawyers that there was a sense of “mob vengeance” surrounding calls for a long prison term.

“Objectively speaking, the fraud here was staggering,” the judge said. Calling his crimes “extraordinarily evil”, the judge pointed out that the fraud “spanned more than 20 years”.

The sentencing came at the end of a 90-minute hearing in which victims of the $65-billion fraud told a packed courtroom that the judge should show no mercy and Madoff himself stood up from the defence table to acknowledge the damage he had inflicted and express regret.

“I’m responsible for a great deal of suffering and pain, I understand that,” the 71-year-old financier told the court. “I live in a tormented state now, knowing all of the pain and suffering that I’ve created. I’ve left a legacy of shame, as some of my victims have pointed out, to my family and my grandchildren.” Addressing his victims seated in the courtroom, he said: “I will turn and face you. I’m sorry. I know that doesn’t help you.”

Prosecutors said Madoff deserved the maximum sentence — representing a life sentence and more for the disgraced financier — for perpetrating one of the biggest investment frauds in Wall Street history. Madoff’s own lawyers said he should receive only 12 years.

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