Ain’t payback a bitch, Bernie?
After spending his first night behind bars, mega-Ponzi crook Bernard Madoff cravenly begged the court yesterday to let him out of jail until he is sentenced this summer for running the world’s biggest financial scam.
READ THE APPEAL & LIST OF ASSETS (PDF)
Madoff, 70, was ordered into federal lockup immediately after pleading guilty to the $65 billion scam Thursday. But in an appeal filed yesterday, his lawyers argued he should be freed because he didn’t run after his arrest, even though he knew he would likely die in prison.
He faces as much as 150 years when sentenced on June 16.
Madoff’s lawyers likened him to some of the biggest white-collar criminals of all time – like WorldCom’s Bernard Ebbers and Enron’s Kenneth Lay – who remained free following their convictions. The law team said Madoff, too, “should remain released pending sentencing.”
Since he gave himself up to the feds in December, Madoff was allowed out on $10 million bail and was placed under house arrest in his swank Upper East Side penthouse.
As part of the arrangement, Madoff’s wife, Ruth, agreed to pay $140,000 a month for security monitoring. That – coupled with the near constant presence of media outside the apartment – makes it impossible for Madoff to disappear, his lawyers argued.
A panel of three judges is due to hear the matter on Thursday.
In the meantime, now that bellyaching Bernie has been hauled off to the federal clink, he will have to tweak his taste for prime rib and cognac amid conditions that are decidedly less refined.
Prisoner No. 61727-054 spent his first night at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in isolation in a special housing unit, known as “the box.”
He munched on a microwaved meal of frozen chicken patties and canned string beans delivered to his cell in a Styrofoam container.
“Think of the worst school lunch you ever had,” said a woman who visited another inmate at the lower-Manhattan jail yesterday. “The food that they give is like garbage.”
As one veteran defense attorney, who has had several clients locked up in the jail, put it: “Le Cirque it ain’t.”
While he’s in “the box,” Madoff’s relatives won’t even be allowed to put money into a commissary account, which would allow him to supplement the meager fare with chips or candy bars.
And things won’t get any better anytime soon. Protocol at the jail puts new prisoners in 23-hour lockdown in the isolation unit for at least several weeks.
Experts said that, given his infamy, Madoff would likely be kept away from the general population for his safety.
“If a guy is forced to wear a bulletproof vest to court, it’s unlikely that they’ll let him wander around with the rest of the prisoners,” one lawyer said.
Aside from one hour on the rooftop gym, Madoff will spend the rest of his time with a cellmate but no access to television, radio or a telephone. He is also not allowed any reading material, leaving him with nothing else but time to contemplate the thousands of innocent people he bilked.
For the next few weeks, Madoff won’t be allowed to see anyone aside from his lawyers until jail officials can vet a list of visitors he requests.
But even after that, he is allowed only one hour of visitation time a week.
Madoff was forced to swap his tailored suits for a brown prison jumpsuit, navy-blue briefs and a pair of tube socks. He is allowed only two showers a week.
In their appeal, Madoff’s lawyers argued the conditions would make it difficult for them to go over their client’s finances in preparation for sentencing.
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