Bernie Madoff wrote a series of emails to CNBC reporter Scott Cohn. In them he expresses his frustration while sitting in federal prison for the rest of his life. In his emails, he says that he is not being credited with the role he played in returning some money to the victims of his fraud. He is so made that he even regrets pleading guilty four years ago.
What really got him going were comments made by Irving Picard, a court-appointed trustee. Picard said, “In my view, he has not been helpful.”
“This is a man that keeps making statements that have no facts to back them up,” Madoff wrote. “I wish I went to trial and he would have been required to provide the evidence he claims he has. As you can see, I am frustrated.”
Madoff says that the work he is doing behind the scenes has led to the recovery of more than half of the initial investments made by his clients.
“From the day of my arrest I offered to assist in recovering the investment principal of my customers. I stated that I was confident that I would be able to convince those parties that were complicit in creating my financial problems, to return the money they withdrew from the investment advisory side of my firm. Those parties were well aware of the incriminating evidence I possessed about their complicit activity and wisely came forward with settlements. It was my belief that it was more important to use the evidence I had to pressure the complicit parties to settle, rather than to use this information for a lesser prison sentence for myself. As remorseful as I am for the pain and suffering I have shamefully caused, I take some comfort in the fact that my assistance will in fact accomplish what I have originally claimed, that with my assistance all of my customers will recover their original investment principal.”
Madoff told Cohn that he has offered his help to Picard, but they have not accepted it.
“You should be aware that I have continued to offer Picard information concerning the complicity of the banks,” Madoff wrote. “I was the only person in my firm that dealt with the officers that handled my account. Not Frank (DiPascali, a Madoff lieutenant who has pleaded guilty to fraud charges) nor anyone else. I have little doubt that the information I could provide would clearly demonstrate the vital role the major banks… played, in the carrying out my fraud, including their role in handling the accounts of my major customers. The ball is in his court.”