Bernard Madoff, accused mastermind of a 50-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme in the United States, may be ready to plead guilty in a deal with prosecutors, according to a report available on The New York Daily News website Saturday.

The report says that Manhattan federal prosecutors filed court papers Friday saying accused Ponzi swindler Bernard Madoff plans to waive indictment on charges he swindled investors of 50 billion dollars.

Lawyers for Madoff, who could spend the rest of his life in jail, have been negotiating with the U.S. attorney’s office in New York. Madoff so far is facing one count of securities fraud, which could bring 20 years in prison and a 5-million- dollar fine if he is convicted. However, prosecutors are now expected to bring additional criminal charges against him, according to other media reports.

A spokeswoman at the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment Friday. Madoff could appear in court as early as next week, according to published reports, but there is no court date set yet.

The deadline for prosecutors to indict Madoff is next Friday.

Madoff, 70, was arrested late last year, a day after meeting with his sons and telling them that his secretive investment advisory business was “basically a giant Ponzi scheme,” a criminal complaint was cited as showing.

A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to investors from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors rather than from profit. The term “Ponzi scheme” is used primarily in the United States, while other English-speaking countries do not distinguish colloquially between this scheme and pyramid schemes.

In recent weeks, prosecutors have tended to a number of housekeeping details that indicated a plea deal was on the horizon.

Earlier this week, prosecutors revealed that Madoff’s wife, Ruth, has 62 million dollars stashed away in accounts she claims should not be subject to forfeiture. She contends the money didn’t come from her husband’s scheme.

She also claims a 7-million-dollar apartment the couple share –and to which her husband is confined — can’t be seized, according to The New York Daily News.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet