He may have had to ditch his yachts and luxury homes but at least Bernie Madoff has some interesting prison company. The billionaire fraudster is, according to US legal papers, hobnobbing inside with ex-Mafioso Carmine Persico and Jonathan Pollard, the naval analyst convicted of spying for Israel.

They certainly have time to get to know each other. Persico and Pollard are doing life, while Madoff has another 149 years to go.