"Mini-Madoff" Nadel pleads not to die in prison

Arthur Nadel, 75, is shown in a photo provided by the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office released to Reuters January 20, 2009.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former Florida fund manager dubbed a "mini-Madoff" for running a $360 million Ponzi scheme has asked a judge for leniency, saying he is in poor health and does not want to die in prison.

In court papers filed on Monday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, lawyers for the defendant Arthur Nadel recommended that their client be given a five-year prison sentence -- less than half of what federal sentencing guidelines recommend.

Nadel, 77, pleaded guilty in February to 15 charges, including multiple fraud counts, over a decade-long scheme in which he stole client money and created false account statements for investors in his Scoop Management funds.

The Sarasota-based fund manager disappeared for two weeks in January 2009 as investigators were closing in. Prosecutors said Nadel used client money to support his lifestyle, and to invest in real estate and his wife's flower shop.

Nadel's lawyers said their client has already spent 20 months in custody, and that his age and heart condition give him a life expectancy of just five years.

They said a five-year term "leaves some possibility" for Nadel to go free before he dies.

"Mr. Nadel is a sick, old man who presents no danger of committing future crimes," the lawyers wrote.

The defense said the federal guidelines, which are advisory, call for a term of about 12-1/2 to 15-1/2 years.

Sentencing is set for October 8 before Judge John Koeltl.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in New York declined to comment. Prosecutors have yet to submit their own sentencing recommendation, court records show.

The case is U.S. v. Nadel, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 09-cr-00433.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Maureen Bavdek)