Prosecutors: Scope of Madoff's fraud still unknown (AP)

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AP - A judge should sentence Bernard Madoff in ten days even though investigators have yet to determine how much money investors lost in the disgraced financier's multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, prosecutors said in court papers released Friday.

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A judge should not delay Bernard Madoff's sentencing even though investigators have yet to determine how much money investors lost in the disgraced financier's multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, prosecutors said.

A fragmentary record of the activities of Madoff's firm, some of it going back as far as 1979 and on microfilm that needs to be digitized, has delayed efforts to identify each victim and losses, prosecutors said in court filings Friday in the Southern District of New York.

Reconstructing the record is likely to take several more months, but should not delay the 71-year-old's scheduled June 29 sentencing, they argued. They requested a 90-day extension beyond the sentencing date for the court to take up the issue of restitution.

Madoff pleaded guilty in March to charges that his investment advisory operation was a massive scheme to rip off investors. He could spend the rest of his life in prison.