Ponzi fraudster Bernard Madoff claimed to have funneled 9 billion US dollars to friends before he was arrested, according to media reports Tuesday.

The 72-year-old man told fellow prison inmates at the North Carolina prison that he shifted 9 billion dollars of the more than 60 billion dollars he stole from investors to three unidentified friends.

The inmate told the New York Post that the financier, who is serving a 150-year prison sentence for fleecing clients through an elaborate pyramid scheme, voluntarily made the confession.

The Post says that Madoff is claiming his former business associate, Frank DiPascali, knows the three recipients’ identities, and that he’s using the information as leverage while he tries to cut a deal with prosecutors.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet