Bernard Madoff amazed he got away with $65bn fraud for so long

Bernard Madoff has admitted that he cannot believe he got away with his $65bn (£38bn) fraud for so long, in his first interview since being jailed.

The disgraced financier chose to lift the lid on his crimes to lawyers who represent victims of his Ponzi scheme. According to San Francisco attorney Joseph Cotchett, Madoff was “very candid” and an “absolute gentleman” during their four-and-a-half hour meeting on Tuesday.

Cotchett said that Madoff “answered every single question and shed a lot of extraordinary details on exactly how he was able to get away with the scam”.

Madoff also admitted that “there were several times that I met with the SEC and thought ‘they got me'”.

Cotchett, a donor to the Democratic party, is a heavy-hitting trial attorney. Earlier this week his firm, Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, filed two fraud suits against Bernard Madoff’s family, including wife Ruth, various accountants and feeder funds. They are not suing Madoff himself, who was jailed for 150 years a month ago after pleading guilty to 11 charges of theft, fraud and money laundering.

It is possible that the details disclosed by Madoff will aid Cotchett if and when these fraud suits come to court. Cotchett said he would be amending the details of the complaints in the light of the interview.

It appears that Madoff was keen to speak to Cotchett to try to exonerate his wife. ABC News quoted Cotchett saying: “He cares about Ruth, but he doesn’t give a —- about his two sons, Mark and Andrew.”

Madoff is serving his sentence in the Butner Federal Prison, a medium-security facility in North Carolina.

Cotchett said that Madoff looked in good health, and appeared to have been exercising. “He looked a lot better than he has in some months since I’ve seen photographs of him,” he said.