In responce to a NY Post report out today, that Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff has told fellow prison inmates that he is dying of cancer, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said the story is inaccurate.

Madoff, 71, who since June has been serving a 150-year sentence at a North Carolina federal prison, has been telling inmates that he does not have long to live, the Post report said, citing the unofficial and unusual sources.

One inmate at the Butner (North Carolina) Medium Federal Correctional Institution said Madoff was taking “about 20 pills a day” and “not doing very well,” the Post wrote, (and was reported here on YWN this morning).

But Federal Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley said the Post story was inaccurate, but she could neither confirm nor deny details about Madoff’s health. She said the bureau was seeking Madoff’s permission to disclose details about his medical condition.

The Post also reported that various “gangs” at the prison were trying to recruit Madoff, while some inmates regularly cook “sandwich wraps” for him at their cells.

The spokeswoman said inmates are not permitted to prepare food in their cells, though it may be procured in the prison commissary and brought back to the cells.

Madoff pleaded guilty in March to orchestrating a worldwide $65 billion Ponzi scheme over 20 years.

(Source: Reuters)