Attorneys: Madoff "Distraught" in Prison

(CBS)  Convicted Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff is having a tough time adjusting to prison life in North Carolina, according to two attorneys representing victims.

Joseph Cotchett and Nancy Fineman, who visited Madoff in a Butner, N.C. prison earlier this week, came away from the meeting with the impression that the former Wall Street bigwig was "distraught" in his new environment - not surprising since the medium security facility probably lacks the luxuries of Manhattan penthouses or Palm Beach estates.

"The first thing you notice is he's not wearing a Brooks Brothers suit. He's wearing tan prison garb … and a pair of tennis shoes he had to buy. It's not the usual Wall Street outfit you would imagine him to be in," Cotchett said on CBS' "The Early Show" Thursday.

Cotchett said Madoff appeared "gaunt" in his new home.

"Look, it's a prison. He's suffering the immediate throes of being thrust into this. It's a new world to him. It's not pleasant, as it shouldn't be. The man is distraught."

Madoff is serving a 150-year sentence in medium security federal prison - the maximum penalty for the multi-billion fraud he pleaded guilty to in March.

"I think it hasn't quite hit him completely. He's having a hard time coming to grips," Fineman said, adding that Madoff's blood pressure was high and his ankles appeared swollen.

Despite the rough adjustment, Madoff told the attorneys that his fellow inmates were treating him like a celebrity.

"According to him they're constantly asking him for autographs. He's the biggest swindler in the country thrust in with a lot of people that have never seen the kind of money he was in touch with every day," Fineman said.

Besides their physical impressions of Madoff, the pair said they also walked away from the meeting with new information that might be helpful in helping their clients recoup some of the money Madoff bilked from them.

"We asked questions for four and a half hours, and he gave us a lot of facts. You know, we learned a lot of new things and confirmed things and we will follow up on a lot he told us," Fineman said.

Cotchett used the "Early Show" interview to take another shot at Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to detect the massive fraud.

"They should have had this guy behind bars 10 to 15 years ago, and they blew it each and every time they interviewed him."

[T-Fed]

What can I, Average Joe, do to help ease the pain associated with his predictament and perhaps even more shocking and adjustment, new friends? Swallow your er... pride M and deal with it.

[T-Fed]

Oh no, please you life sucking maggot lawyers, please say it ain't so? He's distaught. Where do I send a check? What about lipstick, a zerconian engagement ring, and petroleum jelly his chapped lips? PS - how did the maggots get paid (please don't tell me with swindled monies)?

[hamiltongrad]

Now that this man is in jail, does that make anyone feel better ???

[GalfromBrooklyn]

I honestly cannot feel sorry for Mr. Madoff that he is distraught in prison. The people he swindled are distraught without a roof over their heads because all their retirement money is gone, because they have to go back to work, because everything they worked for was taken by this man. Who gives a rats ____ if he is distraught. At least he knows where his next meal is coming from and where he will be in a year from now or months from now. Nope...I don't feel sorry one bit for him. You reap what you sow.

[toldyouso29]

150 years is way too much--where are the criminals from Merrill lynch or Sachs Goldman? where are the Edward Jones crooks. If I got 150 years for swindling, I wouldn't tell anybody, anything--what is the point in cooperating if he can't get less time?

[edsel400]

DROP THE SOAP! DROP THE SOAP!

[Esjaydee]

Distraught? Boo-hoo.

[superfly48]

Who gives a poop? I guess I don't know all of the circumstances, but on the surface, he got what he deserved.

[wrangler73]

The BIG CRIME here, is the crime committed by the SEC and other system cerebral thoroughbreds who, over 16 years, examined Madoff operations eight -8- times and claim they never saw a problem, EVEN WHEN many highly competent, knowledgeable, honest experts were repeatedly complaining about it, waving red flags and calling attention to it. This goes beyond mere incompetence or structural flaws in the SEC. The only honest read here is that there is corruption deep, deep within the SEC.

[hamiltongrad]

IT is way too easy to blame, and punish. It is more difficult to sit down and dialogue. Why do you think so much greed was and is present in our society ? Do we all need to live in individual houses, and all drive cars ? Why not use buses and trains, and pool motor rides, and live in a more comunal setting and share cooking and grow our own food ? If we lower expectations, there would be no need for the SEC because the un natural GREED taught to us, would make such stories not happen. It is not Mr. Madoff's fault, it is the driven CLIENTS who demanded via greed, for more and more profits and money, to buy more and more goods, electronics, and vacation homes.
Sure there events are wrong, but in no way is there need for barbaric mob rule punishments.

[gosstom]

He should have gone the way of his comrade-in-arms Adolph Hitler. Both men caused huge amounts of destruction and ruined the lives of millions of people. Seig Heil!