Madoff: Son tried to get out

Convicted Ponzi king Bernie Madoff persuaded his son Andrew not to leave his securities firm in 2005, although he himself desperately wanted to escape what had become a massive scheme, according to a new report.

The tense relationship between Madoff and his younger son was one of the revelations in a prison interview published yesterday in New York magazine.

Andrew wanted to pursue his own venture, but his father got him to stay -- an act of "deep selfishness" Madoff admitted since he knew the firm would ultimately collapse.

Madoff said his epic $65 billion Ponzi scheme started in "earnest" in the early 1990s by borrowing from his investors' capital to maintain high returns, and blames his largest clients for not figuring it out.

"The chairman of Banco Santander came down to see me, the chairman of Credit Suisse came down, chairman of UBS came down.

"I wouldn't give them any facts, like how much volume I was doing. I was not willing to have them come up and do the due diligence they wanted. I absolutely refused to do it. I said, 'You don't like it, take your money out,' which, of course, they never did."

He further casted blame onto the victims by saying "everyone was greedy."

"Look, none of my clients, even if they lost every penny they put in there, can plead poverty.

"I'm sure it's a traumatic experience to some, but I made a lot of money for people," he insisted.

Speaking about one of his biggest and earliest investors, apparel manufacturer Carl Shapiro, he said, "Let's put it this way: Shapiro probably built more hospitals in Boston and put more buildings in Brandeis University than you can imagine" with Madoff-earned money.

While many would never think of feeling sorry for the swindler, Madoff inists running the scam was a "nightmare.

"Even the regulators felt sorry for me . . . They said, 'How did you live with this?' " he told New York.

It all ended on Dec. 10, 2008, when three months after the stock market collapsed his investors asked to redeem $7 billion that he did not have.

Bernie's eldest son, Mark, committed suicide last December, questioning his father's love for him in the wake of all the lies, according to the report. Andrew, meanwhile, does not accept that his father is a good person who made a mistake.