July 14 (Bloomberg) -- Conman Bernard Madoff was moved temporarily to the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta, the same facility where Charles Ponzi was once incarcerated, to begin serving his 150-year sentence.

The agency transferred Madoff, 71, from a high-security lockup in lower Manhattan, where he’s been since his March 12 guilty plea, to the medium-security prison in Atlanta. Madoff left that facility this morning and is in transit to another federal prison, bureau spokeswoman Felicia Ponce said today.

“I can’t tell you where he’s going until he arrives,” Ponce said in a telephone interview.

Madoff asked at his June 29 sentencing for running the largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history to be sent to a medium- security prison in Otisville, New York. Ponzi, whose later fraud became part of the financial lexicon, was incarcerated in the Atlanta facility for trying to smuggle immigrants into the U.S. from Canada, according to the “Encyclopedia of White Collar Crime,” by Jurg Gerber and Eric Jensen.

Madoff will only be held temporarily at the Atlanta facility before being transferred again to the federal prison in Butner, North Carolina, the Associated Press reported, citing an unidentified official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He’s projected to be released on Nov. 14, 2139, 20 years less than scheduled, the bureau said its Web site.

$65 Billion

Prosecutors said the money manager told clients they had as much as $65 billion invested with him. The government has documented losses of about $13 billion. Madoff isn’t appealing his sentence.

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin, who sentenced Madoff, requested that he serve his prison term in the northeastern U.S.

Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 counts and got the maximum sentence on each. He received 20 years for two counts of international money laundering, as well as for single counts of securities fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, and making a false statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission. He must serve the sentences consecutively.

The Butner Federal Correctional Complex is northeast of Durham, North Carolina, and houses 4,874 inmates.

Adelphia Communications Corp. founder John Rigas and his son Timothy are serving their sentences in Butner’s low-security prison. In 2004, they were found guilty of leading one of the largest U.S. corporate frauds. Adelphia was once the fifth- largest U.S. cable-television company.

The criminal case is U.S. v. Madoff, 09-cr-00213, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff St.Onge at jstonge@bloomberg.net; David Glovin in New York federal court at dglovin@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: July 14, 2009 10:00 EDT