Bernie Madoff’s defense attorney said Tuesday on the FOX Business Network that no decision has been made on whether to appeal Madoff’s 150 year prison sentence.

“We can appeal,” said the attorney, Ira Sorkin said. “We have 10 days from the date that the judgment of conviction was filed to file the notice of appeal.”

With a lot still happening in the bombshell case, Sorkin declined to speculate on other aspects of the ongoing investigation into Madoff’s epic Ponzi scheme. But Sorkin did confirm the government is trying to locate assets in France. 

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“There are assets overseas, and as we said in court yesterday, we are assisting the government -- my firm and one of my partners -- in recovering assets that are located overseas, which the U.S. attorneys office cannot recover on their own,” Sorkin said.

The defense attorney refused to comment on the issue of feeder funds that have been sued by the court appointed trustee seeking to recover funds for former Madoff clients. He reiterated his position stated during Madoff’s sentencing hearing on Monday that most of the money that was invested with Madoff was paid out to clients in redemptions.

“That’s exactly what a Ponzi scheme is,” Sorkin said. “Money in, money out.”

He said more than $1.2 billion has already been recovered, and noted that the trustee is seeking to recover $10.1 billion more through lawsuits. With another $735 million being sought, it would put the figure over the $13 billion the government said was lost in the scheme.

Sorkin would not comment on whether Madoff family members were involved or had knowledge of the fraud. He said the U.S. Attorney's office is investigating their involvement.

Sorkin said the settlement between the government and Ruth Madoff took a long time to work out, but it ended with assets returned to the government in return for allowing her to keep $2.5 million.

Sorkin admitted that defending Madoff was difficult from a personal standpoint, but easy professionally.

“It has been difficult because it has generated an enormous amount of hate mail, anti-Semitism, (and) some death threats. But, most significantly in my view, sadly a total lack of understanding by many people out there who fail to understand what we do as defense lawyers,” he said. “In order for the system to work, we play a role to vigorously defend those under investigation or being prosecuted.”