Bernie Madoff Injured in Fall From Bed

Dec. 23, 2009 — -- Bernie Madoff fell out of bed and suffered facial injuries, according to ABC affiliate WTVD in North Carolina.

The affiliate had initially reported that the convicted Ponzi schemer had facial fractures, broken ribs and a collapsed lung consistent with an assault, but is now reporting he experienced heavy facial bleeding from the fall. Duke University Medical Center said Madoff had been treated there, according to the Associated Press.

Bernie Madoff attorney Ira Sorkin told ABC News that Madoff was admitted to the hospital with dizziness and high blood pressure.

Last week Sorkin told ABC News there was no truth whatsoever to reports Madoff had been hospitalized for any reason.

Earlier this year, the Bureau of Prisons denied news reports that Madoff had been diagnosed with cancer.

Click here to go behind the scenes of Brian Ross' investigation into Bernie and Ruth Madoff.

Madoff pleaded guilty in March to 11 felonies and admitted that his Ponzi scheme began almost 20 years ago. On June 29, he was sentenced to the maximum time allowed, 150 years, and ordered to forfeit $170 billion in assets.

Madoff was arrested Dec. 11, 2008. The day before, he had admitted to his sons that his investment business was "one big lie."

Butner is close to Raleigh and Durham in central North Carolina, and federal sentencing attorney Alan Ellis characterizes the facility as "one of the crown jewels of the federal prison system."

Ellis, author of the "Federal Prison Guidebook," said that in addition to the many graduate students from neighboring University of North Carolina and Duke University that intern at the prison, "The staff is good there. And I always say happy staff makes for happy inmates."

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Madoff's new neighbors at Butner range from a convicted terrorist to a mob boss. The "Blind Sheik," Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, is already housed at Butner's federal medical center, and Carmine Persico, former head of a Colombo crime family, is an inmate at one of two medium security facilities there.

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