Jailed Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff wrote Charlie Gasparino an email from prison accusing hedge fund manager Steve Cohen of both insider trading and front-running.

There are a million reasons to assume that, like a spokesman for SAC Capital puts it, this is "absolutely false," but besides the obvious ones, here's another.

In one email, Madoff wrote, “The worst kept secret was Steve Cohen's trading as well as most other hedge funds," according to Gasparino.

He said he once called Cohen to ask “him to stop his managers from approaching my traders with their offer to give them info if we let SAC execute our commission business.”

Then he wrote to Gasparino again, writing: "It should have read: We could execute SAC'S orders and earn the commissions."

Madoff says Cohen's "standard offer" to market makers was that if they provide him with information regarding the market makers order flow (orders coming in from investors at other hedge funds), then he will use Madoff Securities as their broker. The implied payoff for Madoff: commissions from those trades.

Broker-client relationships are a standard relationship on Wall Street and there are all sorts of services brokers will offer investors in order to score their trades and commissions.

But Madoff gets it totally backwards. Madoff first accuses SAC Capital of offering both info and commissions in exchange for nothing. Then he accuses Cohen of asking if he can front-run other's orders in exchange for a broker relationship.

He wrote to Gasparino:

"His managers, like everyone else were of the opinion that we had access to huge orders from our Hedge fund as well as our market making flow which was hundred's of thousands of orders daily that they could run in front of and visa versa with SAC's orders."

Here Madoff seems to accuse SAC Capital of asking if Madoff Securities would like to front-run SAC's trades. 

Front-running disadvantages the trader, so this is unlikely.

Madoff is so confused and sad. 

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U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff has reportedly issued a ruling in the $1 billion lawsuit filed against the owners of the New York Mets by the trustee of the Bernie Madoff bankruptcy.

Bloomberg's Michele Steele reports that all but two of the charges have been dismissed.

The trustee, Irving Picard, had accused Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz for profiting from Madoff's ponzi scheme and ignoring warning signs that the investments were a fraud.

Picard sought more than $700 million that their company, Sterling Equities, withdrew from Madoff accounts, plus close to $300 million in "fictitious" profits.

Wilpon and Katz have admitted that the finances of their company – and the baseball team it owns – relied heavily on Madoff and company to manage their money. Madoff has claimed from jail that they knew nothing about his scams, but Picard argued that smart businessmen should have suspected the fraud.

Rakoff essentially ruled that payments recovering their principle (the $700M) was not part of the fraud, and cannot be recovered by the trustee -- unless he can prove that they knowingly and willingly participated in the scheme. (Which even Picard is not really claiming.)

The profits, however, don't belong to Sterling and can be seized. Here's the key paragraph:

Under Count 1, the Trustee may recover defendants' net profits simply by proving that the defendants did not provide value for the monies received, but the Trustee may recover the return of the defendants' principal only by proving that the defendants willfully blinded themselves to Madoff Securities' fraud.

Judging by what we've read of the ruling – you can download the whole thing here – it seems that Rakoff is not inclined to buy that argument, but is not ruling it out completely. The nine counts that were dismissed related to transfers of payments from Madoff to the defendants shortly before the bankruptcy, that Picard claimed were suggestive that they knew the fraud was collapsing.

Wilpon and Katz are not out of the woods yet. They could still stand to lose the $300 million and in theory, the full $1 billion, and that's money they can't afford to lose right now.

However, the ruling definitely seems to put them on more solid footing and gives them leverage to negotiate a more favorable settlement with the trustee. Picard basically has to prove that they knew they were investing in a fraudulent scheme and

The trial continues tomorrow.

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At the annual Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst conference held at the Waldorf-Astoria Tuesday in New York there were two unusual attendees -- SEC officials.

One of them was from the agency's enforcement division, which "investigates possible violations of securities laws, recommends Commission action when appropriate, either in a federal court or before an administrative law judge, and negotiates settlements," according to the agency's website.

"Why would SEC officials attend a private equity conference?"

That was the question amongst some conference attendees.  In fact, there was quite a bit of chatter about their presence. 

While sitting at a table with the one from the enforcement division during a panel discussion, at least three people approached him, pointed at his name tag, and asked him why he was there.

He said, "I'm here to better understand the industry since the SEC regulates all investment classes," when we asked him.

"It helps us more intelligently do our job at the SEC," he added.

OK. Fair enough.

While he will go nameless, the official does, however, have extensive experience working in the private equity industry -- at least six years in senior associate and vice president positions at three different venture capital and private equity firms. 

The presence of SEC officials at the conference at this time might concern new regulations in the industry.

Currently, regulation in the private equity industry is limited. There are a variety of securities laws that apply to private equity in various ways.

Whatever the reason for their attendance, having SEC officials present is a good thing.

In the wake of the $50 billion Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme, the SEC was widely criticized for failing to identify what was going on.

This might be evidence that the agency's officials are now taking a more active approach to regulating by getting in the trenches to better understand the industry they regulate.

The SEC was not available for comment at the time of publication.

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Stephanie Madoff Mack, widow of the late Mark Madoff, appeared on "The View" today to promote her new memoir -- and broke down in the culmination of an extremely emotional interview.

Madoff Mack (who came up with the addendum to her last name by combining "M" for Madoff with the Nantucket Memorial Airport code) came to tears as she read a letter she had written to Bernie Madoff in prison.

She also applauded Joy Behar's reiteration that Bernie is "a narcissist" who "should stay in jail for 150 years."

The excerpt the mother of two read:

I understand that you stole money from thousands of innocent people: your children, your grandchildren, your entire family and even my parents. However, what you must know is that you stole the love of my life and four of your grandchildren's father. You stole something from me that can never be replaced. You stole Mark, a loving husband, devoted father and my best friend. I deserve an explanation from you as to why and how you as a human being can possibly live knowing how much pain and destruction you have caused. I deserve an explanation as to how you feel about Mark's death -- or do you even have any feelings?

Letter reading starts around 1:30.

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Stephanie Madoff Mack has just published a memoir and it's harrowing stuff.

Mack tragically lost her husband, Bernie's son Mark, to suicide in 2010.

The book is called "The End of Normal: A Wife's Anguish, a Widow's New Life" and it takes the reader inside the family of the man who perpetrated history's biggest Ponzi scheme.

Ruth Madoff is mean to the help

So was Bernie.

Describing a visit to their Palm Beach home:

"The two of them spent the entire time trash-talking the help. Ruth barked commands at the housekeeper, Marlena, and mocked her Spanish accent. Bernie was fastidiously neat to the point of being obsessive-compulsive, and, with Ruth, he complained ad nauseam about the maid's incompetence."

SOURCE: The End of Normal (Amazon)

Bernie was gross with regard to the bathroom

From the same Palm Beach trip:

"Even worse, Captain Dick, the man who looked after Bernie's boats, kept coming in to use the toilet, which Bernie would then inspect. The rest of us were then treated to his crude description of what he had seen, and his almost girlish outrage over how disgusted he was, as he launched into yet another rant about how 'useless' [the housekeeper] was."

SOURCE: The End of Normal (Amazon)

Ruth liked to embarrass Bernie

She can apparently be pretty mean-spirited.

"Ruth's funniest anecdotes were at her bemused husband's expense. One of their classics was about the time the Madoffs had been invited to spend a couple of days aboard Kisses, the magnificent yacht of billionaire friends in the Carribean. [....] When Bernie woke up on board the first morning, he was horrified to see dark streaks on his bed linens, and he shamefully assumed he had soiled himself while he slept. That night, Ruth noticed the Hershey's Kisses left on their bed by the crew at turndown; it was melted chocolate Bernie had been rolling around in the night before. Bernie laughed, too, when she retold the story."

SOURCE: The End of Normal (Amazon)

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Sunday's 60 Minutes will reveal that the Madoffs, overwhelmed with the fallout from Bernie's crimes, attempted coordinated suicide.

She's happy to still be alive.

From CBS News:

"So Ruth and Bernard Madoff took a bunch of pills, some of them Ambien and possibly some Klonopin, Ruth recalls. She did not drink alcohol with them for fear of vomiting. 'I took what we had, he took more,' says Ruth. It was Christmas Eve, she says, 'That added to the whole depression.' But the pills didn't work. 'We took pills and woke up the next day....It was very impulsive and I am glad we woke up,' she says."

Being vilified by millions took its toll. Ruth cites "terrible phone calls" and "hate mail."

CBS says the interview will contain more revelations. This is a big week for the Madoffs—see our slideshow listing what we learned in Bernie and Ruth's daughter-in-law's new memoir.

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• In the next "Mission Impossible," Tom Cruise is doing his own stunts- including walking on the side of the tallest building in the world in Dubai.

• It looks like celebrities can't just do anything they want- Usher got attacked by a woman in a crowded parking lot in Atlanta for parking in a handicapped spot.

• Apparently Kris Humphries wasn't Kim Kardashian's first choice- she wanted to date an NBA player (preferably Danilo Gallinari of the Knicks) but E! couldn't cast him for the show.

• Michael Lohan got his ex Kate Major evicted from her apartment in Tampa. Apparently after Lohan's recent arrest the paps won't leave her alone, and the other residents want the media- and her- out.

• Charlie Sheen has a new show called "Anger Management" (and no, it's not reality). It's going to air this summer on FX.

• There's lots of hype surrounding the Madoff's attempted suicide, which Ruth Madoff talks about on this week's "60 Minutes." But Bernie Madoff says he's never even thought about taking his own life. Who do you think is lying?

• Lindsay Lohan brought her mom and her 17-year-old sister Ali Lohan to her Playboy photoshoot...appropriate?

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Shortly after Stephanie Madoff Mack's book The End of Normal: A Wife's Anguish, A Widow's New Life, another book about infamous Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff is due to hit stores.

Truth And Consequences written by Laurie Sandell, will be available on October 31. 

Sandell, who interviewed Ruth and Andrew Madoff and his fiance Catherine Hooper, gives the reader insight into the Madoff family, The Daily Mail reported.

Here's a sneak peak at some of the moments the book recounts: [via The Daily Mail]

• Andrew thought a text message sent by his father Bernie four months after his arrest that said "I love you, look after your mother," was a suicide note.  It was not.

• That text message was the first contact Andrew had with his father after his arrest.

• Ruth shouted at both of her sons' refusal to sign on to Bernie's bail agreement.

• After the suicide of Mark Madoff, Stephanie Madoff Mack refused to let his mother Ruth come to the memorial. 

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Infamous Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff's wife Ruth and their son Andrew Madoff and his fiance Catherine Hooper sat down with 60 Minutes for an interview promoting the family authorized autobiography "Truth And Consequences."

The book, written by Laurie Sandell, hit bookshelves today.  The 60 Minutes interview provides a sneak peak into some of the details of the book.

What's interesting is that even after Bernie was arrested and sentenced to 150 years in federal prison for orchestrating the largest financial fraud in history, Ruth has never officially left the marriage.

Ruth met Bernie in 1954 in Queens, New York.

"I just saw him and I was sort of swept away, I think," she told 60 Minutes.

She married him when she was just 18.  During the marriage, they had two sons -- Mark and Andrew. 

His Ponzi scheme and the events following took a toll on the Madoff family. Last year, the younger Madoff son, Mark, took his own life in a suicide.

Ruth blamed herself for her son's suicide because she didn't cut off contact from her husband Bernie, the 60 Minutes transcript said. 

"I just wish, until my dying day, that I had done what he wanted. I don't know if it would have made a difference or not, but if I could change things, at least if I had tried, I would have felt a little better. I don't know if it would have mattered. It's the most awful thing that can happen to anybody. Suicide of a child," she told 60 Minutes.

Immediately following Mark's suicide, Ruth cut off all contact from Bernie, who is currently serving his sentence in Butner, North Carolina.  She no longer speaks with him or visits.

Ruth, who now lives in a 3 bedroom apartment in South Florida, has not divorced Bernie. 

"I don't know. It doesn't matter to me-- he's gonna die in prison. I certainly don't wanna find another man these days," she said. 

Bernie Madoff's daughter in law spills 10 Madoff family secrets >

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Raj Rajaratnam will be doing his 11 year sentence at Devens Federal Medical Facility in Ayer, Massachusetts - about 39 miles west of Boston, Bloomberg reported.

The Galleon Group founder will be processed there December 5.

But here's the real kicker. You'll remember that Judge Richard Holwell, who oversaw Raj's case, recommended that Raj do his time in the federal medical facility in Butner, NC -- where Bernie Madoff is currently serving his 150 years -- because he sympathized with Raj's condition.

Well, he did. But he also made the recommendation because Raj asked him to.

Maybe Raj had heard about Bernie "loving" jail in Butner. 

Last month, Larry Levine, president of Wall Street Prison Consultants, told Business Insider that although a judge will typically recommend a prison following a sentencing, the placement is usually random and depends on available bed space.

In Raj's case, Judge Holwell noted his poor health and possible need for a kidney transplant when he announced the 11-year sentence - very light compared to the 24 years prosecutors asked for - and recommended a medical facility.

There are only five federal medical centers in the U.S., according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

According to Bloomberg, Devens is known for long-term inmates with medical needs - the facility houses a range of inmates such as white collar criminals to sex offenders.

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There's been a recent flush of publicity on the Madoff family with two books published about the fallout of the convicted Ponzi schemer and Ruth Madoff's interviews with 60 Minutes and The New York Times. 

Now, an A-list actor is sure to continue the spotlight on the family.

Oscar winner Robert De Niro will be portraying Bernie Madoff in an upcoming HBO-produced film based off the book  "Truth and Consequences: Life Inside the Madoff Family," The Telegraph reported.

The book, which was recently published and written by Laurie Sandell in cooperation with several members of the Madoff family, highlights the aftermath of Madoff's trial - where he was convicted for running a $65 billion Ponzi scheme - the biggest in American history. Madoff is now serving a 150-year sentence.

This isn't the first piece of news out connecting De Niro to a possible Madoff role - in May, it was reported that De Niro would be producing a film based off another book, Diane Henrique's "The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust."

In addition to Sandell's book, Madoff's daughter-in-law, Stephanie Madoff Mack, has also recently published a memoir called "The End of Normal" her ordeals in the fallout of the Madoff trial.

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Two hedge funds have filed a lawsuit against Deutsche Bank, alleging that the German institution is backing out of a $1 billion deal to buy their claims for losses from investments with Bernie Madoff after the value of the claims fell over $90 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. The claims' worth fell after a series of court rulings against the Madoff trustee, Irving Picard.

The two funds are Kingate Global Fund and Kingate Euro Fund, which both have been in a liquidation process since Madoff's $65 billion Ponzi scheme blew up in 2009 because they had all their assets invested with Madoff's company. Kingate is already wrapped up in legal troubles—it's being sued by Picard for ignoring the Ponzi scheme despite warning signals.

The deal with Deutsche Bank would've helped the two hedge funds rid of their legal problems.

The German bank had inked a letter agreeing to the deal to buy $1.6 billion worth of claims for around $1.1 billion in August, and the two funds say the letter serves as "confirmation" of the deal—yet the firm has been "dragging its feet" ever since.

From the WSJ:

The lawsuit seeks a judgment stating that the confirmation letter is binding and that Deutsche Bank hasn't negotiated in good faith. Deutsche Bank has said it will finalize the purchase at the original price but only if it gets written assurances that it will be eligible for payouts from a pot of nearly $3 billion in forfeitures of money and property related to the case recovered by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, according to people familiar with the matter.

Read the whole story here >

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Irving Picard, the trustee charged with unwinding the Bernie Madoff estate in the wake of the ponzi schemer's bankruptcy, is seeking permission to file a 17,500 word complaint in order to be able to demand $19 billion in damages from JPMorgan Chase, Bloomberg reported this morning.

JPMorgan was Madoff's primary banker, and Picard alleges that losses could have been avoided if the bank had picked up on Madoff's fraud. As the Madoff trustee, Picard is in charge of making former investors whole, and has made similar claims against many other banks in order to do so.

Madoff allegedly defrauded his customers of over $20 billion, and the scheme was uncovered in 2008 despite several fore warnings in the past. So far, $2.7 billion has been allocated to a Customer Fund for return, and about $325.5 million has been returned to customers, according to the Madoff Recovery Initiative website.

But the courts have not been friendly to Picard, and have thrown out over $28 billion worth of claims, according to a Bloomberg report from last December. The suit Picard had against JPMorgan was dismissed last month, and the current 17,500 word document is meant to appeal that decision. For the curious—that 17,500 words is about 35 single spaced pages.

Picard will submit a similar "oversized" appeal for a claim against UBS and will be seeking permission to file an appeal against HSBC, according to Bloomberg.

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NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Mets' owners want the Supreme Court to decide whether only those investors who lost money should get a share of proceeds recovered from Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme.

Sterling Equities Associates, which owns the Mets, on Feb. 3 asked the high court to hear the case. It will likely take months before justices decide if they will.

Thousands of investors lost billions of dollars before Madoff revealed his scheme in 2008. Judges repeatedly agreed with a trustee trying to recover money for investors that only those who lost their original investment can get a portion of what he recovers.

Trustee spokeswoman Amanda Remus says the Supreme Court should decline to hear the case because Sterling Equities is offering the same arguments that were already rejected by lower courts.

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New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon will have to pay up to $83.3 million to the trustee who's recovering funds for those who were defrauded by Bernie Madoff, a judge ruled today.

And that's not all.

The trustee, Irving Picard, is seeking an additional $303 million from Wilpon and the Mets at a trial beginning March 19.

The Wilpon's have argued that they were actually victims of Madoff's ponzi scheme. But the judge ruled that they reaped phony profits from the scheme, and now they must repay them to Picard.

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The Wilpon family has settled with the trustee looking to recover Mets profits from Bernie Madoff's ponzi scheme for $162 million.

Irving Picard, the trustee looking to recover the profits for the victims of the scheme, was suing for $300 million.

The trial was set to begin with jury selection morning.

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Should we really be surprised? Andrew Madoff, the son of ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, is having a hard time finding a rental apartment in New York City because of his father's notorious background, according to the New York Post.

Madoff and his fiance, Catherine Hooper, are trying to find an $20,000 a month apartment in TriBeCa or West Village because their children go to school nearby, but building owners don't want to be associated with Madoff's name.

The couple has gone so far that Hooper will go view apartments alone without Madoff in hopes of snatching up a rental, but once the broker explains Hooper's connections to the building owners, they are immediately rejected, according to the Post.

Back in March, Madoff put his Upper East Side apartment at Lux 74 on sale before pulling it off the market a week later to be rented out. Maybe he was anticipating this.... so he can just move back in?

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The lawyer responsible for recouping assets lost in Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme has created a Twitter account to connect with victims.

Irving Picard is responsible for recovering victims' lost money.

So far he has filed more than 1,000 lawsuits and recaptured about $11 billion, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog reported Tuesday.

About $17.3 billion in invested principal was lost in the Madoff scheme.

So far Picard has remained fairly inactive on his new social media account.

His first tweet, sent Tuesday night, told victims where they could find updates on his recovery operation.

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Bernie Madoff's brother Peter will plead guilty to charges of fraud.  According to a letter to Judge Laura Taylor Swain from U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, Peter Madoff has agreed "not to seek a sentence other than 10 years' imprisonment."

However, all of the news outlets including Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, and Reuters also reported that Madoff would be forfeiting $143 billion worth of property.

We were taken aback by that amount.  It's twice the size of the net worth of the world's richest person. (Carlos Slim is worth $69.1 billion.)

But it's true. It's right there on page 2 of the letter (see below) to Judge Swain:

Further, Madoff agrees to the criminal forfeiture of approximately $143.1 billion, including all of his real and personal property.

That amount seems pretty ridiculously high and it's unlikely that he'll pay that off.

We think it's kind of like how some criminals get incredibly lengthy prison sentences.  For example, Peter's brother Bernie got 150-years.

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Bernie Madoff's brother was taken into FBI custody Friday morning in Manhattan, where he's expected to admit to taking part in the nation's most notorious Ponzi scheme.

Peter Madoff is expected in court later this morning, where he is scheduled to plead guilty to conspiracy and falsifying records, the AP reported.

As part of his plea deal, Peter Madoff has agreed to serve 10 years in prison and give up his fortune, according to the AP.

Bernie Madoff is currently serving a 150-year sentence for defrauding thousands of investors out of billions of dollars.

DON'T MISS: 23 Eye-Opening Quotes From The Supreme Court Obamacare Decision >

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