The disgraced US financier Bernard Madoff is due to be sentenced today for swindling investors in a massive $50bn pyramid scheme.

The 71-year-old former chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange has admitted masterminding the scheme and pleaded guilty earlier this year to 11 charges of fraud, perjury and false reporting.

He is now facing the prospect of spending the rest of his life behind bars.

Madoff invested more than $50bn of clients' money in the so-called Ponzi scheme under the pretence that it was being invested in securities.

Instead, it was deposited in bank accounts and used periodically to pay out to other investors to maintain the impression they were making steady returns.

When the scam was exposed, Madoff claimed the fund held $65bn, when in reality, only around $1bn of the money was left.