Bernie Madoff appears to have none of the remorse expected of a man staring down a 150-year prison sentence.
According to a lengthy new piece by Steve Fishman in New York magazine, Madoff, who apparently pals around with a former mob boss and a spy in a federal prison in Butner, North Carolina told a fellow inmante, "F--- my victims. I carried them for twenty years, and now I'm doing 150 years."
Madoff, whose con artist bona fides seems to have turned some fellow inmates into "groupies," even indicated to other prisoners that some of his victims actually deserved to have their money taken from them. Overall, Madoff comes off as cocksure, unrepentant and a bit miffed at the world. Here's New York magazine:
He was past apologizing. In prison, he crafted his own version of events. From MCC, Madoff explained the trap he was in. "People just kept throwing money at me," Madoff related to a prison consultant who advised him on how to endure prison life. "Some guy wanted to invest, and if I said no, the guy said, 'What, I'm not good enough?' " One day, Shannon Hay, a drug dealer who lived in the same unit in Butner as Madoff, asked about his crimes. "He told me his side. He took money off of people who were rich and greedy and wanted more," says Hay, who was released in December. People, in other words, who deserved it.
The idea that Madoff "carried" his investors or those in his employ, was echoed by earlier comments he reportedly made to another prisoner. Late last year, the Wall Street Journal reported that Madoff told Kenneth C. White, a convicted bank robber, that he "carried" his employees for years and felt that they had turned their back on him."
In December, Madoff reportedly suffered a broken nose and fractured ribs in a prison fight. (It was initially reported that Madoff fell out of bed.)
Convicted of a decades-long Ponzi scheme, Madoff's total take from investors is said to approach $19 billion
Read the entire piece at New York magazine here.