[
link to www.cnbc.com] In a new email from federal prison, convicted con artist Bernard Madoff claims federal regulators "eagerly accepted" information he offered about JPMorgan Chase, which is in talks with U.S. authorities about a potential $2 billion settlement over its alleged role in the Madoff fraud.
"I am not looking for any type of credit for my assistance, just their honesty," he wrote in an email to me dated Friday. "Nothing I could do at this point would help my image."
Madoff claims he shared his information with the Treasury Department Inspector General's office. Sources confirm an intermediary for him contacted the IG's office, but they could not say what information was provided or whether it has been useful.
(Read more: Five years later, Madoff still trying to control the story)
JPMorgan, Madoff's primary banker for decades, has been in regulators' sights almost since the scandal broke five years ago this week. In 2010, the trustee for the Madoff liquidation, Irving Picard, sued the bank for $19 billion, claiming it was "at the very center of the fraud, and thoroughly complicit in it."
Most of the claims have been dismissed, and Picard has appealed to the Supreme Court, but the settlement talks with the Justice Department and regulators involve similar allegations, sources say.
JPMorgan this week declined to comment about the settlement talks, as did the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The bank has previously denied wrongdoing and said its employees acted in good faith.
In multiple emails over the past year, as well as his latest message, Madoff has claimed that JPMorgan and other banks "had to know" about his fraud. He said he offered information about the bank to Picard and his chief counsel, David Sheehan, who this week accused Madoff of "aggrandizing himself" with claims of a
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