I can’t comprehend a plea deal here... what can Madoff “give up” to warrant getting out of jail? Because he really has no incentive (personally) to plea to a lesser term — at his age, pretty much any non-joke sentence will be a “life” sentence.
The only thing that makes sense is that his family would get off, in exchange for not blowing off the lid on how complicit the regulators were in this whole mess...
There were many managers of "feeder" hedge funds who shoveled billions to Madoff over the years, while at the same time earning hefty fees. They've all claimed that Madoff deceived them, and their accountants, but it's hard to believe thay were all that stupid. If they were complicit, and Madoff has proof, or testifies, or both..well..