Trustee Picard Says He Never Met With Madoff
By: Did Bernard Madoff meet with bankruptcy trustee Irving Picard to provide vital information about allegedly "complicit" banks and hedge funds, or didn't he?
In his first prison interview, with the New York Times, Madoff is quoted as saying he did.
"I am saying that the banks and funds were complicit in one form or another and my information to Picard when he was here established this," Madoff was quoted as saying.
The New York Times reported members of Picard's team spent four days meeting wtih Madoff in prison last summer. But was Picard himself present?
Picard's attorney says no.
"At no time did any meeting between the two take place and there has been no direct communication between them at any time," said attorney David Sheehan in a statement e-mailed to CNBC.
But the statement does not rule out meetings with members of Picard's team, as described in the article.
A later version of the story posted on the New York Times web site shortens the original quote, eliminating the reference to Picard himself being "here" at the prison, and includes a correction:
"An earlier version of this article incorrectly indicated, in a few passages, that Bernard L. Madoff met personally with Irving H. Picard, the trustee liquidating his estate. Mr. Picard was not present at interviews his legal team conducted with Mr. Madoff in prison last summer," the correction says.
