{"id":227211,"date":"2021-04-15T03:14:15","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T00:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/bernie-madoffs-secrets-revealed-by-his-prison-pen-pal\/"},"modified":"2021-04-15T03:14:15","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T00:14:15","slug":"bernie-madoffs-secrets-revealed-by-his-prison-pen-pal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/bernie-madoffs-secrets-revealed-by-his-prison-pen-pal\/","title":{"rendered":"#Bernie Madoff’s secrets revealed by his prison pen pal"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Bernie Madoff’s secrets revealed by his prison pen pal<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

For 12 years, business journalist Jim Campbell has interviewed members of Bernie Madoff\u2019s family and exchanged letters with the fraudster himself in prison. His new book, \u201cMadoff Talks<\/a>,\u201d comes out in two weeks. Here, Campbell reveals some of what he learned about the notorious case.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cJim, I have no problem with what you have laid out,\u201d Bernie Madoff wrote to me from prison, in exquisite cursive, about my request for an interview. \u201cI must add that both Andy and Ruth felt good about your sincerity.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

I never imagined becoming pen pals with perhaps the most vilified person on the planet. Nor did I expect to\u00a0end up with more than 400 pages of communications with Bernie Madoff, including e-mails and some multi-page, single-spaced handwritten letters, which\u00a0always rationalized in tremendous detail his every illicit move.<\/p>\n

It was interesting that he claimed his son Andrew had vouched for me. From the instant Bernie confessed to the family on the afternoon of the day before his arrest, on\u00a0Dec. 11, 2008, Andrew never said another word to his father. Ever. Even when I suggested he should if only for his own closure, he snapp<\/a>ed: \u201cnever, he\u2019s dead to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

I had spoken to Andrew at a time he was under legal investigation by the Feds.\u00a0Andrew introduced me to Ruth Madoff, who in pure coincidence, was moving to Old Greenwich, my hometown. I offered to take her to lunch. As with Andy, I was surprised how open she was to my questions. She devoured her salad as if she hadn\u2019t eaten in weeks. Upon leaving, I asked if we could take a picture. She stopped instantly: \u201cYou\u2019re wired aren\u2019t you.\u201d To which I assured her I was not. It led to several years of lunches.<\/p>\n

\"A
A sample of a letter to Jim Campbell from Bernie Madoff while he was in jail. <\/figcaption>
Jim Campbell<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Whatever you think of her, Ruth is a resilient woman. She had lost $800 million of net worth; her husband she had started dating at the age of 13 was in prison for 150 years; her son, Mark, committed suicide two years to the day after Bernie\u2019s arrest; and her remaining, son, Andrew, was dying of cancer.<\/p>\n

Andrew, his\u00a0head balding from chemotherapy, once told me: \u201cHe killed Mark quickly; and he\u2019s killing me slowly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruth had to submit a receipt for any expense over $100 to the SIPC Madoff Recovery Trustee. Her life, in other words, was circumscribed.\u00a0She told me how deeply she was hurt too, by the fact she\u2019d learned Bernie had cheated on her.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bernie was likeable, hardly a Gordon Gekko type. I told him he was such a good con man, precisely because he wasn\u2019t trying to be one. All this money was shoveled into him by the feeder hedge funds, who were willfully blind to his actions in return for the \u201cmanagement fees\u201d \u2014 really thinly veiled bribes \u2014 he passed along.\u00a0They asked no questions. Not a single one of them have ever been charged criminally.<\/p>\n

\"bernie
Bernard Madoff leaves Manhattan federal court, on March 10, 2009.
\n<\/figcaption>
AP Photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 12 years of letters and lunches with Bernie, Ruth and Andrew Madoff, I learned:<\/p>\n