After Bernard L. Madoff admitted to masterminding the largest Ponzi scheme in history and bilking thousands of investors out of their cash, he was punished with a sentence that made it likely he would die in federal prison — 150 years.

Now, a decade into his time, at the age of 81, Mr. Madoff is seeking to have his sentence commuted by President Trump. He has filed a petition for clemency with the Justice Department, according to their website.

It was not clear when Mr. Madoff filed his petition, or what arguments he is making for the request. The Justice Department declined to comment. The department’s website said that information in its online clemency database was last updated on July 1, and that Mr. Madoff’s request, which was first reported by CNBC, was still pending on that date.

Petitions for clemency, which include pardons and sentence commutations, are sent to the Office of the Pardon Attorney in the Justice Department. The office reviews petitions and makes recommendations on their merits to the president, who has constitutional authority to grant pardons and make final decisions on cases.

As president, Mr. Trump has increasingly wielded pardons as a way to push back against a justice system he frequently has called unfair. He has granted clemency to several prominent public figures whose politics resonate with him, like Joe Arpaio, a former sheriff in Arizona, and I. Lewis Libby Jr., the former aide to Dick Cheney.

It was not clear whether Mr. Trump would consider Mr. Madoff’s application for clemency. The White House referred requests for comment to the Justice Department.

Years before he became president, Mr. Trump expressed contempt for Mr. Madoff in an interview with The New York Times Magazine in 2009.

Mr. Trump told The Times that he had met the notorious financier several times, both at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s private, members-only resort in Palm Beach, Fla., and at Mr. Trump’s nearby golf course.

At one point, Mr. Madoff, who once owned a waterfront mansion in Palm Beach, asked Mr. Trump to invest in his fund, Mr. Trump said.

“I said jokingly, ‘No thanks, I can lose my own money,’” Mr. Trump said.

In 2008, in an interview with CNN, Mr. Trump referred to Mr. Madoff as a “sleazebag” and “a total crook.”

Mr. Madoff’s former lawyer, Ira Lee Sorkin, who represented Mr. Madoff during his criminal case, said that he had no information about the clemency request. He did not know if another attorney had assisted Mr. Madoff with his petition.

Mr. Madoff has been incarcerated at a federal prison in Butner, N.C., since July 2009, after he pleaded guilty to 11 counts of financial crimes, including fraud, money laundering, perjury and theft. He received the maximum possible sentence.

He was accused of using his investment firm to steal billions from his clients, cheating many of them out of their life savings. Rather than investing their money, Mr. Madoff spent it on family and friends. He then took in money from additional investors to pay earlier ones and cover up his fraud.

In 2008, Mr. Madoff told his sons, both of whom have since died, that his investment advisory firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, had committed massive fraud. His family notified federal agents, who arrested him the next day.

Less than a year into his sentence, Mr. Madoff was moved to a low-security medical center at the prison complex, where he is currently located, according to online Bureau of Prisons records.

The Bureau of Prisons, cutting time off Mr. Madoff’s sentence for good behavior, gave him a projected release date of Nov. 14, 2139, when he would be 201 years old.

Mr. Madoff was not the only one seeking clemency related to the fraud scheme at his investment firm.

His former secretary, Annette Bongiorno, who was sentenced to six years in prison on fraud charges, also filed a petition for clemency, according to the Justice Department’s website.

Her lawyer, Roland G. Riopelle, said he did not have more information about Ms. Bongiorno’s petition, but he noted that Ms. Bongiorno, 70, was moved to home confinement by the Bureau of Prisons in April.

She had previously asked a federal judge last year to move her into home confinement as permitted by the First Step Act, a criminal justice bill signed into law by President Trump in December.

The law allows certain offenders over 60, who are not considered a threat to others, to be released into home confinement if they have completed two-thirds of their sentence.

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