Bernie's prison pen pal spills his secrets: Ruth Madoff would spend $60k a month on company credit card and withdrew $10m on day Ponzi scheme was exposed - while Bernie seduced a client's wife just because he didn't like him
A journalist who became prison pen pals with Bernie Madoff and befriended his wife Ruth, regularly taking her out for lunch over the course of several years, has revealed some of the disgraced family's secrets including how Ruth was spending $57,000-a-month on the company credit card.
Bernie died in prison on Wednesday at the age of 82. He had been fighting renal kidney failure and was in a wheelchair.
It's unclear who will now claim his body.
The Bureau of Prisons declined to comment on whether or not an autopsy has been ordered, or how and when Madoff's body will be taken out of the prison if it hasn't already.
'It is the responsibility of the inmate themselves to specify in writing to the BOP, who their next of kin is and who the BOP should contact in the event of their serious illness or death.
'In the event no next of kin is listed, the BOP will, very extensively, exhaust all means to contact any known relatives,' a spokesman said.
He added that if no one claims an inmate's remain, the 'BOP will respectfully bury the remains at a local cemetery, and in accordance with local laws and guidance.'
Ruth is living is Connecticut but has been seen recently in Palm Beach, Florida, where Bernie's younger brother Peter also lives with his wife Marion.
Until last year, when he was applying for compassionate release, Bernie was writing to journalist Jim Campbell, a radio host from Connecticut, who gained access to the family through Madoff's youngest son Andrew before he died from cancer in 2014.
Campbell and Bernie exchanged hundreds of letters over the 12 years he was incarcerated.
He reveals them in his new book, Madoff Talks: Uncovering the Untold Story Behind the Most Notorious Ponzi Scheme in History, which will be published on April 27.
In an interview with DailyMail.com on Thursday morning, Campbell revealed that Bernie was unrepentant and only expressed remorse in their letters because his lawyers told him to.
He said he thought of his victims as 'greedy' and resented them.
He also shared a startling American Express statement from the family office in March 2008, nine months before Bernie's arrest.
In that month alone, Ruth spent $57,910 - nearly double the average US annual salary. It's unclear what she was buying. Her role was to do the books.
Peter, Bernie's younger brother, spent $19,990. Andrew, Bernie's youngest son, spent $7,800 and Mark, the oldest son, spent over $10,000. Bernie spent nothing.
Together, they had a joint credit line of $200,000.
Ruth previously claimed not to have spoken to him since their son Mark killed himself in 2010 because he could no longer bear the weight of the shame his father heaped on to their family.
The Madoff company credit card in March 2008, nine months before Bernie's arrest. He spent nothing but Ruth, who was meant to be running the books, spent nearly $57,000
One of the letters Bernie sent to Jim Campbell while he was locked up in federal custody in North Carolina. He tried to 'restore his legacy' through Jim, he says
But she cut off contact with Campbell at the same time as Bernie did, when he was applying for compassionate release from prison last year because he was dying of kidney disease.
'I don't think Ruth would ever be able to completely decouple from him,' Campbell said on Thursday morning.
On the day of his arrest, Ruth also withdrew $10million out of Cohmad Securities, another business Bernie ran, after visiting the office to give out Christmas gifts, Campbell said.
Campbell told DailyMail.com he cannot be certain if it was to help Bernie with bail, but he said he is 'certain' she will have done it under Bernie's direction.
The book also reveals how Ruth was devastated by Bernie's infidelity; he had multiple affairs, including one with a woman that lasted 16 years.
Campbell claims Bernie also seduced the wife of an investor because he hated the investor. Bernie denied it to him. He didn't name the woman or her investor husband.
Campbell also claims to have learned for a fact that Bernie was running a $3billion legitimate trading fund alongside his Ponzi scheme. It's unclear where that money is now. In their correspondence, Bernie still considered himself a Wall Street wizard.
Ruth now has to log any purchase she makes over $100 with the Madoff Victim Fund. It's unclear how much money she has left.
Jim Campbell interviewed Bernie via letters from prison and Ruth over lunch for several years. His new book comes out in two weeks
Bernie had multiple affairs, including with Sheryl Weinstein - the former CFO of the Jewish organization Hadassah, who he had a relationship with for 16 years
Before he was jailed, she made a deal with prosecutors to that she'd be allowed $2.5million to pay for his legal fees.
She has since reached a settlement with a small group of some of his tens of thousands of victims to pay them $600,000.
It's a tiny fraction of what he stole - $65billion.
Bernie also told Campbell how he convinced clients they were making money when they weren't.
He had a file he referred to as 'schtup', a Yiddish word which means 'sex' or 'push up', where he'd calculate how much each client needed to think they were making every year, then he'd give them that number at year-end.
He insisted to Campbell that he could have made all of the trades he thought about but never did.
'Jim I do realize none of these trades actually happened,' he said.
The trades Bernie claimed to be making were larger than the entire market but somehow, the SEC failed to detect it.
They didn't even know he had a hedge fund, Campbell writes.
'Over 40 years, the SEC missed what could have been uncovered in a well-placed 5-minute phone call to a Wall Street trade validating entity to see such returns weren’t even possible,' he said.
Bernie's coziness with the regulators was a crucial component of the case.
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