Bernard Madoff could be barred from attending his son’s funeral, according to a report in The New York Post.
The rules of the prison where the infamous Ponzi-schemer is serving his 150-year sentence note that supervised furloughs to attend funerals of “immediate family members” are available only to inmates with two years or less pending on their prison terms, the newspaper said.
“Furloughs are a privilege, not a right, and are only granted when clearly in the public interest,” according to the Inmate Handbook at the medium-security Butner Federal Correctional Institution in North Carolina.
A white-collar felon typically can receive an emergency furlough to attend a funeral, but the Madoff case “is a whole different ballgame,” Ed Bales, managing director of Federal Prisons Consultants, told the Post.
“I would question whether they’d grant him a furlough because of heightened publicity,” Bales told the newspaper. “He could be a target. He could be shot.”
Bernard Madoff’s eldest son Mark hanged himself Saturday by a dog leash on a metal ceiling beam in his Manhattan loft apartment. The death was officially ruled a suicide by hanging Sunday by the city medical examiner.
The 46-year-old died on the anniversary of his father's arrest two years ago in the largest pyramid scheme ever recorded. It followed the filing in recent weeks of dozens of lawsuits by trustee Irving Picard as he pursued billions of dollars in damages against those who profited from the multi-decade fraud.
If Madoff is granted permission to attend the funeral he would be escorted by federal marshals, which would be paid for by his family, the Post reported.
