If Bernie Madoff’s prison life were being adapted into a movie, executives could pitch it as Wall Street meets The Godfather.
According to journalist Steve Fishman—who has covered the Ponzi schemer for years and is now hosting a podcast on the con, Ponzi Supernova—reveals that Madoff, who is now doing a 150-year sentence in prison, has befriended Carmine John Persico Jr., the Colombo crime family boss.
“It was Carmine who first greeted Bernie when he arrived,” Fishman explains. “Carmine sent him shower slippers, tried to make him feel at home. Bernie didn’t know the rules of prison, and that was something Carmine was able to help with.”
Persico, who was once known as “Junior,” is doing a life sentence for charges spanning from racketeering to murder.
“He doesn’t really fit into the prison life, which is very segregated by race and sexual orientation, among other things,” says Fishman. “He moves from group to group. He has social relationships with some of the gay prisoners, the child molesters, the mob guys. It doesn’t matter to him.”
Read more about Madoff’s life in prison in this MarketWatch feature.
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