Madoff May Plead Insanity

Sources say attorneys are considering multiple personality disorder argument
By Drew Nelles,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 28, 2008 3:56 PM CST
Madoff May Plead Insanity
Bernard L. Madoff, chairman of Madoff Investment Securities, is seen on his Manhattan trading floor in this photo taken Dec. 30, 1999 in New York.   (AP Photo/The New York Times, Ruby Washington)

You'd have to be a little bit crazy to cook up a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, but Bernard Madoff’s lawyers are exploring taking things a bit further with an insanity defense. “They may even say he has a multiple personality disorder,” a source tells the New York Daily News. Madoff is reportedly taking anti-anxiety meds and barely speaks.

“Insanity defenses rarely work. But if you can influence just one juror, he may stand a chance,” a psychiatrist says, adding that Madoff’s lawyers could claim he has dementia or bipolar disorder. But a criminal attorney doubts that would be successful: “His best defense is making himself essential to discovering where the money is and getting it to the victims.”
(More Bernard Madoff stories.)

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