Sunday Times 2
‘I can’t sleep’: Bernie Madoff tells how he is racked with guilt
View(s):He was once head of a multi-billion dollar empire, now Bernard Madoff makes $40 a month from prison.
The convicted fraudster has taken a job looking after telephones and computers in the North Carolina prison where he is serving a 150-year sentence.
Madoff works for only ‘a few hours’ a day, which leaves him plenty of time to ponder his undoing.
Remorse: Bernie Madoff
The man who ran his own finance firm is now identified as inmate 61727-054 at Butner Federal Correctional Complex. In 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to siphoning $17.5 billion from thousands of investors in a long-running, pyramid-style con.
The 75-year-old told CNN Money his deception began after the Black Monday crash of 1987. He said that was when he turned his investors into victims, but insists he never intended his crime to go on for so long.
‘It was certainly never my intention for this to happen, he said. ‘I thought I could work myself out of a temporary situation but it kept getting worse and worse and I didn’t have the courage to admit what I had done.’
The medium-security prison Madoff now calls home are a far cry from his former life of luxury.
When his Ponzi scheme was revealed Madoff had to give up his $7 million Manhattan penthouse, a beach house in Montauk, New York, his homes in Florida and France, and a yacht named The Bull.
Madoff and his wife Ruth also had to auction furniture, jewellery and clothing in November 2010 to compensate his victims.
Madoff, who was married for 50 years, had tried to hide his family from the fraud.
In 2010, on the second anniversary of his arrest, his eldest son Mark hanged himself.
‘I was responsible for my son Mark’s death and that’s very, very difficult,’ he said. ‘I live with that. I live with the remorse, the pain I caused everybody, certainly my family, and the victims.’
Mark’s widow Stephanie, who is the mother of his two children, previously lashed out at Madoff for reveling in his celebrity status in prison.
She claims he wrote her a letter from prison saying: ‘As you can imagine, I am quite the celebrity, and am treated like a Mafia don. They call me either Uncle Bernie or Mr. Madoff.’
During his Manhattan court case in 2009, Madoff told the court: ‘I am actually grateful for this opportunity to publicly comment about my crimes, for which I am deeply sorry and ashamed.’
Tragic: Bernie Madoff's eldest son Mark with his wife Stephanie. Mark hanged himself after Madoff was jailed
His remorse and lengthy jail term is not enough for some of the victims affected by his fraudulent scheme.
Mike De Vita, who co-authored The Club that No One Wanted to Join, does not believe Madoff feels true remorse for the damage he caused to his victims or family, dismissing Madoff’s remorse as ‘words, and words alone.’
Madoff argues that his prison sentence does give him time to reflect on his wrongdoing.
‘I’m usually up at 4.30am because I can t sleep,’ Madoff said.
And while he used to be responsible for running a company, his new job involves making sure the prison phones and computers are clean and in good working order.
© Daily Mail, London
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