FBI takes Bernard Madoff’s brother into custody

NEW YORK (AP) — The FBI has taken Bernard Madoff’s brother, Peter, into custody as a federal judge in New York prepares to accept his plea to criminal charges.

FBI spokesman J. Peter Donald says Madoff was taken into custody at his lawyer’s Manhattan office around 7 a.m. EDT Friday.

The procedure was a prelude to a court appearance scheduled a few hours later.

Madoff is scheduled to enter a plea to conspiracy and falsifying records. The government told a judge that he has agreed to serve 10 years in prison and relinquish his fortune.

The plea by the 66-year-old chief compliance officer at the Madoff investment business comes three years after his brother admitted to mammoth fraud.

Bernard Madoff is serving a 150-year prison term. He has insisted he carried out his fraud alone for decades, cheating thousands of people of billions of dollars.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.