Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Life

The Madoff Mash

Bernard Madoff got in his first prison fight last week. And according to an account in the New York Post, the convicted Ponzi schemer emerged victorious.

The bout was no Ali vs. Foreman. Apparently, Madoff, 71, who is serving a 150-year sentence at a federal prison in Butner, N.C., got into a heated argument with another inmate, who is in his 60s, over the state of the stock market. Then the two settled the matter prison-brawl-style, sort of: “The inmate pushed Madoff, who shoved back harder with both hands, causing his attacker to stumble.”

As the attacker tried to stand up straight, Madoff hovered over him red-faced and glaring, eyewitnesses said. According to the New York Post:

The stunned attacker went chicken and took off — allowing Madoff to collect some ‘cred’ among his fellow prisoners. ‘”I didn’t think Bernie had it in him. He got the best of him; he was really aggressive, and the other guy was in shock that he fought back,” an inmate said.

Apparently Madoff needn’t worry about a shiv in his back — at least not from the guy he pushed. The two inmates were spotted the next day talking amicably, the Post reports.

Meanwhile, Madoff imitators will be lurking on every corner this Halloween — although these schemers are after your candy, not your money. Madoff masks are a big hit with the costumed crowd: Rubie’s Costume Company has distributed more than 15,000 rubber Madoff masks to stores across the country, according to the Associated Press.

As if senior citizens brawling over the stock market in our federal prisons wasn’t scary enough.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.