http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7066903.eceBernard Madoff 'beaten up in jail'
By Nico Hines
March 18, 2010
Bernard Madoff, the multibillion-dollar investment fraudster, was reportedly beaten up in prison by a fellow inmate with a black belt in karate who inflicted serious injuries.
The former Wall Street tycoon was allegedly attacked for the second time last December as he served the first months of a 150-year sentence for operating a $65 billion Ponzi scheme.
After the attack, Madoff, 71, was transferred to a low-security medical centre where he was treated for a broken nose, fractured ribs and cuts to his head and face, a prisoner in Butner, North Carolina, told the Wall Street Journal.
At the time of the incident last year, the US Bureau of Prisons denied reports that he had been violently assaulted and said the financier was being treated for high blood pressure and dizziness.
The Wall Street Journal said details of Madoff’s injuries could not be independently verified but said two other unnamed people were able to confirm that the assault had taken place.
A former inmate said Madoff's dispute with a
body-builder, who was jailed for drug offences, centred on money the assailant thought he was owed by the trader.
Traci Billingsley, a Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman, said: “In December he told staff he was not assaulted, and an investigation was completed following his statements, which corroborated his statements. Not one inmate has told staff he was assaulted.”
The former inmate, who was in prison for drug charges, also offered an insight into Madoff’s life in jail. Apparently he spends much of his free time in the prison library and often watches films including Lethal Weapon.
The witness also claimed that Madoff had given him financial advice during conversations in the library. He said Madoff had advised him to diversify his share portfolio, suggesting that he invest in funds that track the market as a whole, “where my money would be on all the stocks instead of putting my eggs In one basket”.
The ex-convict said Madoff socialised with Carmine "The Snake" Persico, the reputed boss of the Colombo crime-family, and John Mancini, a former pharmacist from New York, who was convicted for selling around five million illegal pain-killing tablets.
