Bernie Madoff says he tried to confess to $65billion Ponzi scheme years before his arrest but nobody believed him

  • Wall Street financier Bernie Madoff orchestrated largest fraudulent scheme in US history
  • He is serving a 150-year sentence in federal prison for defrauding thousands of investors of $65billion in life savings
  • In 2012, Madoff testified in a lawsuit deposition brought by one of his victims against an institution that invested with him
  • He told the deposition that he confessed to the scheme, but no one wanted to listen 

By ARIEL ZILBER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Published: | Updated:

Bernie Madoff, the Wall Street financier who orchestrated the largest Ponzi scheme in US history, says that he tried to confess to defrauding thousands of clients out of a total of $65billion years before he was actually caught, but nobody believed him.

The revelation was made in an audio recording of Madoff answering questions in a lawsuit deposition in 2012, according to the New York Post.

The lawsuit was filed by plaintiffs who sued Banco Santander's Optimal Investment Services, a group that invested with Madoff.

The recording was obtained by the makers of Ponzi Supernova, an audio documentary that airs on Amazon's Audible platform.

The sixth and final part of Ponzi Supernova will be played on Thursday.

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Bernie Madoff
Bernie Madoff

Bernie Madoff (above), the Wall Street financier who orchestrated the largest Ponzi scheme in US history, says that he tried to confess to defrauding thousands of clients out of a total of $65billion years before he was actually caught

Madoff said that investors were beginning to be suspicious of how he was actually making money as early as 2005 – three years before he was arrested.

The former stockbroker and NASDAQ chairman said that he would tell investors the truth – only to hear them laugh in disbelief.

'Well they [suspicious investors in 2005] would, they would ask me that, you know, with a smile, "You're not — are you really doing these trades?" or "You know, and so on and so forth?"' Madoff said during his deposition.

'And sometimes, I would say, "No, I'm not [making any trades]." They would laugh, and then that would be the end of it. They didn't want to believe it.'

Madoff also says that hedge-fund managers turned a blind eye because of the money they were raking in – even though they should have known that the profits did not add up mathematically.

'I thought they didn't want to understand. I thought that was . . . willful blindness,' said Madoff.

Madoff was eventually arrested, tried, and convicted in 2008. He is serving a 150-year sentence at the federal prison in Butner, North Carolina (above)

Madoff was eventually arrested, tried, and convicted in 2008. He is serving a 150-year sentence at the federal prison in Butner, North Carolina (above)

As long as his partners were reaping enormous profits, nobody bothered to look closer 'because they never, they never really objected,' Madoff said.

The creator of Supernova, journalist Steve Fishman, agrees with Madoff. The investors took a see-no-evil, hear-no-evil approach while they were lining their pockets.

'They ignored all the warning signs,' Fishman told the Post. 'And those warning signs really explicit and big.'

'He [Madoff] refused to give them answers and they said, "OK Bernie, OK Bernie. That's no problem".'

It's worth noting that the Securities and Exchange Commission was warned in 1999 – almost a decade before Madoff's arrest – that he was operating a fraudulent scheme.

Harry Markopolos, a financial analyst, insisted to the government that Madoff's numbers were illegal, but he was ignored for years, according to Time.

Madoff was eventually arrested, tried, and convicted in 2008. He is serving a 150-year sentence at the federal prison in Butner, North Carolina.  

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