The New York Post and the Wall Street Journal report that scam artist Bernie Madoff is dying of cancer. The Bureau of Prisons says it ain’t so. Wishful thinking? Or not? Would people be angry that he got off with serving so little time? Inquiring minds want to know.
By Frank Ahrens
Washington Post Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — Does convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard L. Madoff have cancer, as two newspapers are reporting, or not, as the U.S. Bureau of Prisons is stating?
Under the headline “Bernie’s Cancer Cell,” the New York Post reported Monday that Madoff, who was sentenced to 150 years in prison for swindling investors out of as much as $65 billion, wrote: “Bernie Madoff had little to lose by confessing to masterminding the world’s biggest Ponzi scheme — he’s dying of cancer, sources told The Post.”
The story goes on to say that Madoff, 71, has been telling fellow inmates that he doesn’t have long to live.
“He’s been taking about 20 pills a day for his cancer,” the Post quoted one inmate, anonymously. “He talks about it all the time. He’s not doing very well.”
