'They don't speak to me.' Bernie Madoff reveals how he lost his billions AND his family
- Disgraced financier said he was 'dumb, just dumb' in prison interview
- He is considering ethics courses after business schools contacted him
- His secret passion is reading Danielle Steel fantasy novels
Madoff said his crimes were 'dumb' and it was the first thing he had ever done that had not worked
Disgraced New York financier Bernie Madoff has revealed how his family no longer speak to him following his multi-billion-dollar fraud.
From his North Carolina prison where he will end his days, the 72-year-old said his son Andrew has broken off contact and him and his wife Ruth rarely speak.
Tearfully he revealed how she was now alone and fearful of the media, which follow her whenever she leaves the house, and lived her life 'like a hermit.'
Madoff is serving 150 years behind bars after he pleaded guilty to the global Ponzi scam that left thousands of victims penniless.
The extraordinary insight into the impact his crimes has had on his family was revealed in an exclusive interview with the Financial Times.
Speaking almost as if his eldest son Mark was still alive - he hung himself on the second anniversary of his father's arrest - Madoff said: 'They don't speak to me. It's horrible. They feel like I betrayed them. And I did. But I had no choice. By the time I realised, I couldn't get out.
'I hope I can repair things with Andy. Mark is a different personality, he couldn't stand it.'
Recalling his crimes which shocked the world, he revealed he was under a lot of pressure and it was the first time in his life something had not worked out. 'I was just dumb,' he says, 'Dumb!'
Madoff said Ruth was 'very angry with me' but, knowing him and the people he was dealing with, understood how it happened. The couple rarely speak now.
New Yorker Madoff said he now spends most of his days behind bars reading and made the surprising admission that he loves romantic novelist Danielle Steele's books.
He also said he was considering working on ethics courses after being approached by several business schools.
Madoff with his wife Ruth and late son Mark. Madoff reveals his family no longer speak to him
Ruth Madoff and the couple's late son Mark who hung himself on the second anniversary of Madoff's arrest
Madoff, centre, leaves U.S. District Court in Manhattan after a bail hearing 2009
He also described his relief at being arrested, after being under 'unbearable' pressure during the previous 16 years, and wished it had all ended sooner.
As he divulges in rambling detail the background and events that led up to his crimes, he insists that none of what he said is seen as an excuse for his behaviour and takes full responsibility for his actions.
However, he claims top Wall Street executives knew about the scheme, but did not do anything about it. He warned banks were 'going to have big problems' when the facts are disclosed.
As Madoff's empire began to unravel, at his company's Christmas party in 2008, he said his sons knew something was wrong. Faced with $7billion in redemptions he knew he could not pay, his life as he knew it was about to end.
At home he told his family their fortune was all a fraud and they wept. Mark and Andy called the police and Madoff was arrested hours later.
At the prison in Butner, North Carolina, Madoff works four days a week, 10am to 7pm, manning the commissary. Ironically, the prison store is called the 'money management department.'
He now insists his focus is on helping recover funds for his former clients.
Madoff and his wife Ruth at their Montauk beach house, New York, in July 1980
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