Legal News

Madoff Speaks . . . and Speaks and Speaks and Speaks

By Ashby Jones

We’ve been following the Bernie Madoff saga for so long now, it seems that there’s hardly anything we don’t know about him.

That is, we realized this morning, we’ve never before heard his voice.

Until now.

New York magazine recently landed a series of phone interviews with Madoff, currently serving a 150-year prison sentence for bilking investors out of tens of billions. Click here for the story, which links to taped excerpts of the conversations — between Madoff and reporter Steve Fishman.

Just a few highlights for you, LBers:

Madoff on Madoff: "How could I have done this?" asked his prison therapist, according to the story. "I was making a lot of money. I didn't need the money. [Am I] a flawed character?" Later, Madoff asked: "Everybody on the outside kept claiming I was a sociopath . . . Am I a sociopath?' (The therapist’s answer: he’s not a sociopath. He has morals and remorse.)

Madoff on his own misery: At the peak of his fraud, as everyone seemed to be getting rich, Madoff was “secretly suffering.” Said Madoff, according to Fishman: "It was a nightmare for me. It was only a nightmare for me. It's horrible. When I say nightmare, imagine carrying this secret . . . Look, imagine going home every night not being able to tell your wife, living with this ax over your head, not telling your sons, my brother, seeing them every day in the business and not being able to confide in them.”

Madoff on his clients:

"Look, none of my clients, even if they lost every penny they put in there, can plead poverty . . . Look, it doesn't mean I'm excusing what I did, doesn't mean I don't feel sorry for them. I'm embarrassed . . . It was the people that came in very late in the game that got hurt. All of my friends, most of my individual clients, are not net losers," he said. "Now if you listen to [them], they're living out of Dumpsters and they don't have any money, and I'm sure it's a traumatic experience to some, but I made a lot of money for people. Does it justify it? No.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 28, 2011 (boomark / email).