Bernie Madoff, the notorious Ponzi schemer, says that he is dying from terminal kidney disease, and on Wednesday asked a judge to grant him an early release from prison on compassionate grounds so that he can live out his remaining days with a friend.

A lawyer for Madoff, in a legal filing, says the fraudster has "less than 18 months to live," and is suffering from "numerous other serious medical conditions" including cardiovascular disease and hypertension.

On Thursday, a lawyer for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, which prosecuted Madoff, filed a court document asking a judge to set a March 4 deadline for them to submit a response to Madoff's request.

Under their proposal, Madoff would have until March 11 to reply to the U.S. Attorney's Office's position. Madoff's lawyers agreed with that tentative schedule, according to the court document.

Madoff, 81, is serving a 150-year prison sentence in a North Carolina federal facility for orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme in history at his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities in New York City.

He pleaded guilty in 2009 to 11 crimes related swindling of billions of dollars from thousands of investors over several decades.

"I'm terminally ill," Madoff told The Washington Post in an article Wednesday.

"There's no cure for my type of disease. So, you know, I've served. I've served 11 years already, and, quite frankly, I've suffered through it," Madoff told the newspaper.

But one of Madoff's victims, Gregg Felsen, had no sympathy for the arch-scammer who decimated his savings.

"He's terminally ill? I'm terminally broke," Felsen told the Washington Post. "He ruined a lot of people's lives and changed them forever. He deserves no leniency whatsoever."

Madoff last summer was moved into palliative care in the Federal Medical Center prison in Butner, N.C., according to the filing by his lawyer in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Madoff has refused to undergo dialysis treatment and is confined to a wheelchair, the lawyer, Brandon Sample, wrote.

If a judge sets him free, Madoff, who forfeited all his financial assets when he pleaded guilty, would "financially support himself through Social Security and Medicare benefits," according to Sample.

"If released, he will live with a friend," said the filing, which did not identify that person willing to host Madoff.

Sample wrote, "Madoff does not dispute the severity of his crimes nor does he seek to minimize the suffering of his victims. Madoff has expressed remorse for his crimes."