Madoff may wear own clothes at sentencing-US judge

NEW YORK, June 24 (Reuters) - Confessed swindler Bernard Madoff will be allowed to wear his own clothing in court, instead of prison-issue garb, when he is sentenced on June 29, the judge in the case ruled on Wednesday.

Madoff's lawyer Ira Lee Sorkin confirmed the request had been made to U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin but he declined to say whether or not the convicted financier would wear one of his trademark stylish suits.

When the former nonexecutive chairman of the Nasdaq stock market pleaded guilty in March to 11 criminal charges in Wall Street's biggest investment scheme, he wore an expensive gray suit but none of the rings or jewelry that were a signature of his style.

The 71-year-old, whose fraud may have taken in as much as $65 billion over two decades, was last seen in public at the March 12 plea proceeding being handcuffed and led away to the jail next door to the Manhattan federal court.

"It is hereby ordered that defendant Bernard L. Madoff (inmate #61727-054) is permitted to receive clothing at the Metropolitan Correctional Center ... to be worn by the defendant at sentencing on Monday, June 29, 2009," the written order by Chin said.

Madoff was arrested by the FBI on Dec. 11 last year after he confessed to his two sons that he had been operating a long-running Ponzi scheme. A Ponzi scheme is one in which early investors are paid with the money of new clients.

The Madoff scheme, like several others, collapsed in the 2008 economic crisis as an increasing number of redemption requests overwhelmed the money available to pay investors.

The case is USA v Madoff 09-213 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) (Reporting by Grant McCool, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)