Madoff May Plead Insanity

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.”