Madoff to "speak of the shame he felt" at court hearing today

The court proceeding at New York will begin at 3pm U.K. time (10 am NY time). Reports have emerged that people have started queuing 3 hours before the start of the court hearing at the federal courthouse in Manhattan.

During the hearing numerous investors who lost much of their savings will speak of their shock and deception.

Madoff, 71, pleaded guilty to the criminal charges brought against him at the same court in March. During the hearing today, his lawyer said Madoff will "speak to the shame he has felt and to the pain he has caused."

The prosecutors are pressing for a life time charge against Madoff, but his lawyer is arguing for a sentence less than the life term as requested by the prosecutors.

Madoff confessed to running a multibillion-dollar "Ponzi scheme" in which investors were paid returns from money paid by later investors.

Investigators do not know how much was stolen, according to court papers. Prosecutors say $170 billion (102.7 billion pounds) flowed through the principal Madoff account over decades, and that weeks before the financier's December arrest the firm's statements showed a total of $65 billion in accounts.

The trustee winding down the Madoff firm has so far collected $1.2 billion to return to investors.

"Given the enormous amount of funds he has stolen and the number of victims, the sentence is going to be very, very high," said Paul Radvany, a law professor at Fordham University in New York and a former federal prosecutor.

Madoff's wife Ruth and other family members are not expected to be in court for the sentencing. They have not attended any of Madoff's court appearances since his arrest.