US: US prisons service denies Madoff cancer reports
Tue Aug 25 04:39:01 EST 2009
Mon Aug 24 18:39:01 UTC 2009
NEW YORK, Aug 24 AFP - US prison authorities have denied media reports that convicted Wall Street fraud Bernard Madoff is dying of cancer.
"We can tell you that Bernie Madoff is not terminally ill and has not been diagnosed with cancer," the Prisons Bureau said in an emailed statement on Monday.
Earlier, the New York Post and Wall Street Journal quoted separate, unidentified sources saying that Madoff, 71, is in the terminal stages of the disease.
The Prisons Bureau said the Post article was "full of inaccuracies."
Madoff is serving a 150-year sentence in a North Carolina prison for a multi-billion dollar investment fraud that cheated thousands of people and institutions, including celebrities, charities and leading banks, over several decades.
The Post quoted another inmate saying Madoff's "been taking about 20 pills a day for his cancer."
"He talks about it all the time. He's not doing very well," the unnamed inmate was quoted as saying.
The Journal reported on its news blog that "sources familiar with the situation" confirmed Madoff was dying, but that it was unclear what kind of cancer he had.
