Bernie Madoff, 71, seems to be doing well in North Carolina's Butner Federal Correctional Complex. He plays games like chess and bocce ball, and works in the kitchen as a pot and pan scrubber.
The most interesting bit in this Wall Street Journal article is about K.C. White, a talented artist who was recently released on a bank robbery charge, but was in prison when Madoff started serving time. He drew Madoff's portrait in prison.
Mr. Madoff struck up a conversation [with White], saying: "You're the guy who does all the pictures around here," Mr. White recalls.
According to Mr. White, Mr. Madoff chatted about the fraud's aftermath, claiming he "carried" employees at Bernard L. Madoff Securities LLC for more than two decades, yet wound up with an astronomical prison sentence. "I guess he felt they turned their back on him," Mr. White says.
Still, Mr. Madoff seemed proud, walking around the prison with his head held high. "He carried on like he'd been doing time for years," Mr. White says.
Mr. Madoff asked Mr. White to paint his portrait, so the bank robber drew a fast sketch in the prison paint shop where Mr. Madoff worked at the time, according to Mr. White.
Mr. Madoff told Mr. White he didn't want to be depicted in his prison khakis, Mr. White says, so he drew him in a suit and tie.
In this highly entertaining video interview with White on Philly.com, White said Madoff is unremorseful for his crimes:
"I call [the portrait] 'F— My Victims,' because Bernie is not very remorseful. He told me, 'I made them millions of dollars. I'm doing 150 years. F— my victims.'"
Madoff's attorney, Ira Sorkin, doubts that Madoff would ever utter such words.
Says Sorkin: "At all times, he expressed deep and sincere remorse, both publicly and privately, for everyone who he put through" the Ponzi scheme that ballooned into the largest investment fraud – victims lost billions of dollars – ever committed by a single person.
Bernie Madoff, the $19 Billion Con, Makes New Friends Behind Bars
