Thursday, March 12, 2009

A Glimpse At Madoff's Tenure At The MCC

Bloomberg does a good analysis of the culture shock associated for Bernie in moving from his penthouse to his temporary confinement at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan, which is characterized as a "horrendous" jail. Larry Levine, who himself served 10 years in federal prisons for securities fraud and drug trafficking has this to say about what lies in store for Bernie.
Madoff isn’t going to be real popular. All the guys there will have wives or parents who are losing their homes or their jobs or who can’t send money to them anymore. Everybody’s going to be blaming Bernie.”
Some more descriptions of what lies in store for Bernie:
“In the beginning, he will be besieged by mail that will be threatening and accusatory. There will be people trying to scam him and people who think he’s hiding money. There will be inmates asking for money, and you don’t want them to disbelieve you when you say you don’t have it.
So in which jail will Bernie end up ultimately?
Madoff probably would be assigned to a low- or medium-security facility, said Levine, whose firm, Wall Street Prison Consultants, is in Los Angeles. Medium-level lockups usually house inmates in cells and are ringed with electronic escape-detection systems, the bureau site says.

Because crimes such as rape and murder are usually prosecuted under state laws, “in general, the federal system is less violent,” Henning said. “Madoff will be put in with the least violent.”

Madoff, who is Jewish, may be assigned to one of several U.S. facilities in the New York area, including the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, New York, 70 miles from Manhattan, where ultra-Orthodox Jews run religious services inside the prison, he said.

The financier may be sent instead to a low-security facility at Fort Dix, New Jersey. It’s next to a minimum-security camp housing former fund manager Martin Armstrong, founder of now-defunct Princeton Economics International Ltd., who’s serving a five-year sentence for securities fraud.
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2 comments:

James said...

No one cares. were back to taking aggressive risks that no one really understands

A Serial Entrepreneur said...

Let me say that I too am awaiting my sentencing hearing in federal court. I have been charged with 14 counts of wire fraud. Total monetary figure of loss $265,000.00. When the FBI & D.O.J. put out a press release on my “capture”, they said my maximum sentence was 240 years!

What amazes me is that I read that Mr. Madoff has a maximum sentence allowable by law of 150 years? I am astonished. My attorney called it “Ironic”. Yet, I am looking at only a 21-30 month sentence of incarceration according to the federal sentencing guidelines.

By complete coincidence, being that I too am Jewish, my attorney has requested that I be sent FCI Otisville due to the high population of Jews and the accessibility to weekly Shabbat Services and a Rabbi, which is not offered in any other prison in the system. I too would either go to Otisville or Ft. Dix in NJ.

I had heard a know at my door in Brooklyn. I opened the door and to my utter amazement, I was starring at 12 FBI agents clad in black pointing semi automatic weapons at my head.

I was also arrested in NY and taken to MCC. Let me say that I was taken to the S.H.U. (Security Housing Unit) and stayed there for 14 days. From what I understand ALL new inmates are places their upon their initial entry to MCC. In the S.H.U., which is solitary confinement for less of a better name, you are under lockdown for 23 hours a day. You are allowed/limited to the following:

1. Showers on Monday, Wednesday & Friday’s.
2. 1 hour of “rooftop” recreation Monday thru Friday
3. A 3” toothbrush
4. A roll of toilet tissue for the WEEK.
5. Breakfast @ 6am / Lunch @ 11:30am / Dinner @ 5pm
6. 8’x7’ cell (usually with another inmate)
7. After about 3 or 4 days you are allowed commissary (Approx $270 a month)
8. A single library book

I ate vegetables, fruit and some bread due to my kosher diet. It took me over 2 weeks and a ridiculous interview by a “PREIST” before I was granted the ability to have KOSHER meals.

That’s about it.

While in the SHU, I was neighbors with inmates such as Monzer al-Kassar, also known as “The Prince of Marbella” a famous international arms dealer. Anton Dunn, the guy that pulled the Gerber Baby Food Hoax, grey haired Englishman named something like “Andrew Schmullen”, who was there for “Blood Diamonds” and a large array of Latinos who were there for everything from felony gun possession to trafficking and distributing 2000 kilos of Cocaine. It was a heck of an experience to say the least.

After 14 days, I was transferred to G.P. (General Population), which after being in solitary confinement, was like being “FREE to Roam” in a “cruise ship” type of way. I was looking forward to the walk through the building to my new unit. To my surprise, I literally walked across the hall to 9N (9 North) from S.H.U.

I was assigned a cell in a small “hallway like” unit with 8 or 10 cells. When I walked into the unit with the C.O. (Corrections Officer) I was greeted by a short, stout, grey haired gentleman. He extended his hand to me and said “Hey kid, you come from the SHU”? I said “yeah.” He said “You seen two young Italian kids from Staten island in there”. I told him “yeah, they were brought in about a week after I was there”. He told me they were “friends of ours”. He said they were the guys that were accused of killing that Jeweler in Staten Island. He said they were trying to make a name for themselves. I didn’t think much of it.

He then asked where I was from and I told him I was Born in Brooklyn and had recently moved back to Brooklyn. He asked if I was Italian or Jewish. I told him Jewish. I told him Jewish. He said “Good, you bring anything with you from the SHU”. I said “not a thing”. He immediately “ordered” the guy sitting to his right to give me Soup packets, the guy to his left to give me shower slippers, the Italian guy sitting behind him reading the paper to give me a coffee mug and so on.

I looked at him and said “ I didn’t catch your name”. He said “Nick, just call me Nick”. He went on to “order” me a haircut from a huge Jamaican guy who crafted the most ingenious hair cutting device from a comb and three blades from two plastic razors. I was completely amazement!

We had some discussions about some “mob guys” from Philly (where I had been living for years) and how he missed hanging out with his family and friends. I later came to find out that this nice old guy in grey shorts and a t-shirt was none other than the head of the Gambino crime family, Nick Corozzo.

I was then eventually transferred out a few days later to MDC in Brooklyn and a week later onto the Federal Detention Center in the City where my crime originated.

My case being the result of bad business management. No matter how you look at it or what you call it, it has cost my victims enough. Maybe not as much as Madoff’s victims, but they say “it’s all relative”. It has also cause myself and my family an incredible amount of shame and embarrassment, legal fees and more.