NEW YORK — U.S. District Judge Denny Chin said the federal probation department recommends Bernard Madoff get 50 years in prison for a multibillion-dollar fraud scheme.

Madoff's lawyer asked a judge to give his 71-year-old client 12 years behind bars. Prosecutors planned to seek a 150-year prison term today.

The former Nasdaq chairman was arrested late last year after confessing to his sons that his secretive investment advisory business was a "big lie."

He pleaded guilty to securities fraud and other charges in March and has been jailed ever since.