Legal News

Bernie?s Prison Number Comes up Big for Queens Man

By Ashby Jones

Okay, okay, okay. We know. This isn’t exactly law-related, but hopefully you’ll forgive us: It was simply too good to pass up.

The New York Daily News has a fun story today about a man who, well, “is finally making some money off Bernie Madoff.” It has nothing to do with an investment; rather the man played part of Madoff’s prison number in the New York Lottery and came away $1500 richer.

According to the story, a Queens construction worker named Ralph Amendolaro noticed the numbers under Madoff’s mugshot on the front page of the Daily News the day after Madoff pleaded guilty. Amendolaro played the last three digits, 054, later that day. For three days, Amendolaro placed a $3 bet on the numbers. That Sunday, the numbers came up, and Amendolaro walked away with $1500, or, as the Daily News points out, a 16,000 percent return, “far more than even Madoff promised his bilked investors.”

Amendolaro doubted Madoff, who is expected to spend the rest of his days behind bars, would be happy to hear someone cashed in on the $65 billion scam.

“He’ll probably look to charge me on the investment that I made off of him,” he said. “He’ll probably want a cut.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 24, 2009 (boomark / email).