Bernie Madoff may not have very much time left to spend on his 150 year federal prison sentence. The New York Post is reporting that the 71 year old man who pleaded guilty to swindling $65 billion in the biggest ponzi scheme ever, is dying of cancer.
Madoff's fellow inmates at a North Carolina prison have told the Post that Madoff is taking close to 20 pills a day and has told them that he doesn't have long to live. Apparently Madoff's attorney's are not returning any calls from the media. Rumors had surfaced about Madoff's health condition even before he began serving his prison sentence in June, but his attorney's did not confirm or deny the reports of pancreatic cancer when asked by the Post earlier this year.
The prisoners who told the Post about Madoff's cancer also said that Madoff is spending his time behind bars participating in Native American purification ceremonies. The ceremonies include prayer and sweat lodges to help detoxify the body. The prisoners did not say whether Madoff was participating for health reasons.
If the cancer rumors are proved to be true, it may shed new light on the possible motivation for Bernie Madoff accepting complete responsibility for the ponzi scheme. Madoff confessed last December that he had taken billions of dollars from thousands of investors, but he did not implicate anyone else in the scheme.
