The former New York money manager, Bernard Madoff, was sent to prison yesterday after pleading guilty to 11 charges including those of fraud and money laundering, The Times reported. Madoff appealed to remain under 24 hour house arrest until his sentencing on June 16, but it was rejected after Judge Denny Chin said: 'In light of Mr Madoff's age, he has incentive to flee, he has the means to flee and there is risk of flight.' Last night the US financier was sent to a Manhattan holding cell where he will be kept until sentencing for running a $65bn (£46.3bn) Ponzi scheme to cheat some of America's stars including John Malkovich, Zsa Zsa Gabor and director Steven Spielberg. He claimed to give returns of up to 46% a year but did not invest his clients' money. 70 year-old Madoff is said he felt deeply embarrassed by his fraudulent activities and said that 'as I engaged in my fraud, I knew what I was doing was wrong and indeed criminal'.