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.

Madoff wore a dark suit, white shirt and a tie and sat at a polished wood table, surrounded by his lawyers. Prosecutors sat opposite them, and the viewing gallery was crowded with onlookers.

Madoff’s lawyer, Ira Lee Sorkin, said the government’s request for a 150-year sentence bordered on absurd. He called Madoff a “deeply flawed individual,” but a human being nonetheless. “Vengeance is not the goal of punishment,” Sorkin said.

But in meting out the maximum sentence, Judge Chin pointed out that no friends, family or other supporters had submitted any letters on Madoff’s behalf, attesting to the strength of his character or good deeds he had done. Madoff was expected to return to his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan while federal prison officials determine where he will serve his sentence.

The hearing on Monday marked a climactic moment in the criminal case against Madoff, whose name has become synonymous with greed and fraud. Dozens of photographers and television camera crews from New York to China waited outside the federal district courthouse on Pearl Street.

It will be at least another three months before the judge makes a decision on repaying the victims. Prosecutors requested more time to sift through Mr. Madoff’s records to determine how much was lost and how many people are owed.

The inspector general of the Securities and Exchange Commission is examining how regulators failed for years to catch Madoff. Investment funds that channeled money to Madoff have been sued, and two have agreed to return millions they withdrew before Madoff’s December arrest.