Bernard Madoff, the disgraced king of the Ponzi Scheme, has broken his media silence. Boy has he ever. In an interview with the New York Times, he asserts that banks and hedge funds with whom he did business "had to know" about his fraud. "But the attitude was sort of, 'If you're doing something wrong, we don't want to know.' " 

If this revelation seems to dovetail with the attitude motivating Irving Picard, the trustee who has been tasked with recovering lost assets, there's a good reason. Madoff has been cooperating with him. He met with Picard's team over four days last summer, before Picard began his blizzard of suits against an array of institutions and individuals.

The bank with the most on the line is JPMorgan Chase. Madoff did not mention any banks or hedge funds by name in his Times interview. But JPMorgan was his main banker for many years, and Picard is convinced they were dirty in their dealings with the bank. It's possible that the bank specifically came up in discussion with Picard's team.

For the record, Madoff also maintains that some individuals who have been targeted by Picard are innocent, such as Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz. It would be interesting to hear his views on specific feeder funds. Credibility, of course, is an issue. Obviously, he is not the most trustworthy guy.

But the JPMorgan Chase-Picard showdown could get quite interesting, especially if Madoff were to loom as a witness. Madoff told the Times he has long been willing to work with prosecutors but not in criminal cases.

He remains an enigmatic figure and will likely remain in the news for some time.

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