Banks, hedge funds were somehow “complicit” in massive Ponzi scheme, says Madoff

NEW YORK - Bernard L. Madoff, the man who is serving a 150-year sentence over defrauding people of billions of dollars while operating a vast Ponzi scheme that began at least 20 years ago, has said that in a prison interview that various banks were ‘wilfully blind’ to his crimes.

“They had to know. But the attitude was sort of, ‘If you’re doing something wrong, we don’t want to know,’ ” The New York Times quoted Madoff, as saying.

He also stressed that unidentified banks and hedge funds were somehow “complicit” in his massive Ponzi scheme, but failed to examine discrepancies between his regulatory filings and other information available to them, the paper said.

Madoff further said that he came to know about e-mails and messages, which are now emerging in lawsuits, that indicate that the bankers had raised doubts about his scam.

“I’m reading more now about how suspicious they were than I ever realized at the time,” he said.

His son’s, Mark, step of committing suicide in December last year appears to have had a great impact on Madoff, who insisted that his family members were unaware of his crimes.

Besides that loss, his family also has faced a number of lawsuits, the potential forfeiture of most of their assets, and relentless public suspicion and enmity that separated him, and his wife, Ruth, from their children, the paper added.

Earlier, Madoff was charged with 11 felony counts, including securities fraud, money laundering and perjury. (ANI)