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 now who will claim his body.
Until last year, when he was applying for compassionate release, he 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
Andrew told Campbell of their disgraced father: 'He killed Mark quickly, he is killing me slowly'Mark Madoff with his wife Stephanie, right, before his father's crimes were revealed. Mark killed himself on the second anniversary of his father's arrest in December 2010. Andrew Madoff, right, on the Today show in 2011. He died from lymphoma in 2014. The two brothers said they never spoke to their father again after learning what he'd done.
Mark Madoff was found hanging in his Manhattan apartment in December 2010. His wife blamed his father and the shame he felt over his crimes
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 Campbell interviewed Bernie via letters from prison and Ruth over lunch for several years. His new book comes out in two weeks
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