Madoff explains scheme from NC jail

NEW YORK — A lawyer for victims of Bernard Madoff’s fraud says Madoff told him during a 4½-hour jailhouse interview in North Carolina exactly how the fraud took place.

The San Francisco lawyer, Joseph Cotchett, said he planned to use what he learned Tuesday to add defendants to a lawsuit to be filed in Manhattan on behalf of investors harmed by the fraud.

The 71-year-old Madoff was brought two weeks ago to the Butner Federal Correctional Complex about 45 miles northwest of Raleigh to begin serving a 150-year sentence.

Cotchett said Madoff was “very candid” and repeatedly apologized to victims.

Authorities say Madoff cost thousands of investors at least $13 billion, telling them it had grown to about $65 billion.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)